


I’m With You

by AnotherHydrangea



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Extremely Slow Burn, Fluff, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, ToA didn’t happen, and kind of adopt her, basically the guys find an orphan, both are clueless, unsolved past issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22791373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherHydrangea/pseuds/AnotherHydrangea
Summary: Everything was perfectly fine until Alex shows up at Camp Half-Blood with a request for Percy.(Indefinite Hiatus)
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson, side pairings will be added later
Comments: 6
Kudos: 90





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

It had been four years since the Giant War. Percy was sitting at the big house with Jason, Will, and Chiron. Annabeth had called for an emergency meeting, although, she didn't explain the reason, she assured it wasn't a matter of life or death. Or at least not for them.   
Actually, she had only asked for Percy and Jason. Will was already at the big house when they arrived, he was in the middle of telling Chiron about which medic supplies needed to be restocked. When he heard about the meeting he decided to stay just in case a medical opinion was needed, according to him.  
Just when Percy was starting to get impatient, Annabeth entered the room, accompanied by someone else. The son of Poseidon looked, wide-eyed, at the rather familiar face.

“Alex?” he said almost in a whisper.

“Hello, Percy. Good to see you again,” greeted Alex with a small smile.

“Perce, do you know this person?” said Jason looking from one to the other extremely confused by the situation.

“I taught a friend of…” Percy paused for a few seconds to check which gender was Alex. He remembered being nagged about not respecting the gender. Apparently, at the moment he was a boy, “his, about how to survive in the ocean.”

“Yeah, about that… it might be a little bit late, but thank you.”

“Your welcome?”, Percy frowned confused, not expecting the thankfulness three years later. Actually, he didn’t even expect to be thanked for it at all.

“I’m kind of confused,” admitted Will sighing a little. “So can we start with the meeting?”

Will had just finished the sentence when someone stumbled into the room. It was Nico and by the looks of his face, Percy deduced he was probably searching for Will. He was scanning the room with a confused expression, but when his eyes stopped at Alex he blinked bewildered.

“He’s dead,” he blurted out pointing a finger at the offspring of Loki. “Sorted of… how is that possible?”

“Rude!” complained Alex clearly offended. “Who is the rude one?” he asked turning to look at Annabeth.

“Nico di Angelo, son of Hades,” she explained with a short sigh.

“Oh,” he blinked surprised. “That’s how he knows.”

Will made a motion with his head to Nico, indicating the son of Hades to sit next to him which he did reluctantly without taking his eyes off Alex.

“So you are dead?” he asked while sitting next to Will. Obviously still curious about the weird living status of the other guy.

“Seriously, you’re so rude. But yes, I died but got back to life. I’m an einherji,” he huffed rolling his eyes. 

He saw the dopey look between the others when he said the word, Alex was already used to them, but when he saw Jason opening his mouth in an attempt of saying the word, the offspring of Loki raised his hand to stop him. 

“Please, don’t even try to pronounce it, I’m tired of explaining how to pronounce that word.”

“Then would you care to explain what is… that? That’s how you called your demigods?” asked Jason curiously, making a motion with his hands to request Alex to continue explaining.

“No. We Einherjar can be either demigods or mortals. We train in Hotel Valhalla for Ragnarök which is kind of like the end of the world. Look, I’m not going to explain everything if you want to know more search for yourselves.”

Alex crossed his arms while looking at Jason. He was growing more impatient by every passing minute. He did not come all the way from Massachusetts to be questioned. He needed help as soon as possible. The other blond seems to catch that feeling because he leaned over the ping pong table giving Alex a serious look.

“Okay. So what brings a Norse demigod here? To the Greek territory?” asked Will cocking one eyebrow.

“To make it short. I’ve been having dreams for two weeks about this little girl asking for help, she looked like… she was in a lot of trouble. I told Magnus about my dream and he told Annabeth.”

“And I told Alex that we could help him out,” explained Annabeth placing her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Unlike us, Norse demigods are not constantly being chased by monsters since they don’t have a characteristic smell and could grow up without ever knowing that they have a godly parent.”

The children of the Big Three exchange envious looks. Not being chased by monsters every now and then? Not knowing that you had a godly parent? The possibility of a normal life? It sounded like a dream come true. Sure, most of the Greek and Roman demigods and legacies would agree with their point of view. But only the three of them, plus Hazel and Thalia, had to deal with the additional pressure that came with being an offspring of one of the Big Three.

“So, you want us to help you to search for a Norse demigod?” asked Jason after a moment of processing the situation.

“Yes. Also… I was kind of hoping I could leave her here with you?”

“What!?” exclaimed everyone else in the room surprised.

“You’re not implying that our pantheons will merge, are you?”

“Of course not," he huffed. "But where I come from we don’t have kids running around. It would be rather irresponsible and dangerous to have a child running around. I’m not even asking for it to be permanent — well I do hope it can be permanent — but if not… something temporal would be nice,” stated Alex. The tone of his voice let clear that he was very serious about his request of leaving the unknown child with the Greeks.

“Chiron?” Annabeth turned to see the centaur with a very puzzled look. That was something, not even he had considered.

“I don’t have anything against his request. Pantheons have been meeting and mixing with each other for over a millennium. But we’ll see once you come back with the child safely,” declared Chiron. Everyone nodded shortly in understanding. The safety of the kid was first. “Good. I suppose you already have a plan Annabeth.”

“Of course,” she smiled proudly since Chiron knew her very well. “I was thinking that either Jason or Percy could go with Alex. The two of them have been tracking and bringing to camp most of the newly claimed demigods.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“If it’s not a problem for you, can I ask Percy to be the one coming with me?” Alex had raised his hand like he was asking permission to give his opinion. Although, he talked before he was allowed to.

“Why? If you could explain yourself,” Chiron bent his head a little, giving him a confused glance.

“First, he is the only one I know aside from Annabeth. Second, I heard that he has experience with kids. Also, because I know he’s a huge magnet for troubles. The girl looked like she was in a lot of trouble, so if he goes, it might be easier to find her,” said Alex trying to justify his reasons. However, his main reason to ask for the son of Poseidon to accompanying him was still unsaid. Alex looked surprised how one of the blonds, the one sitting next to the rude son of Hades, suddenly burst into laughter.

“He surely knows Percy!”

“Shut up Solace!” Percy said while glaring at Will, a faint blush spread on his face since he knew there was some truth on that, not that he was going to admit it.

“I can’t argue with that,” chuckled Chiron amused. “Very well, Percy will be part of your quest.”

“Good.”

“I’m already hating this,” groaned the son of Poseidon irritated. 

He started to mentally prepare himself for the upcoming trip. It was going to be torture. Chiron ignored Percy’s comment and continued with the planning for the quest's team “As for your second companion…”

“May I suggest Nico?”

Everyone in the room turned to see Will who had raised his hand to speak. The son of Apollo had a serene face but his eyes showed that he was being serious. Nico was probably the most confused among them.

“Will?” Nico whispered unsure of what to say or how to object. Will knew better than anyone than he didn’t like to interact with strangers. Sure, he wasn’t the same kid that pushed everyone away and that kept running away from the camp. He even had friends there. But dealing with strangers was a whole different thing he still didn’t like to do.

“You are the quickest and safest way to get to the child and get him or her back to the safety of the camp,” he explains sounding very confident. No one else but Nico could see the trust that emanated from the blond’s eyes. That was enough to make the son of Hades unable to argue.

“Mister rude? No offense but why do you say he is the quickest and safest way to get to the   
kid and come?” Alex asked.

“He can shadow-travel you, the closest he can, to where the kid is. He also knows basics of first aid, so in case of — and let’s hope it’s not the case — the child is hurt. He could help you a lot,” answered Will quickly. Hoping that what he said was enough to convince the skeptical guy.

“Shadow-travel? Never heard of that, but sounds cool,” Alex grinned widely while crossing his arms over his chest. Now that sounded like something interesting.

“It is, you might like it a lot Alex,” chuckled Percy at the expression the offspring of Loki had. 

Now the trip sounded promising as long as Nico accepted to go with them. Which he hoped he did because a) he really didn’t want to be alone with Alex and b) it had been a while since he and the son of Hades went on a quest together. Regularly Percy will go on a quest to bring newly claimed demigods to the camp with Jason while Nico spent most of his time in the infirmary helping and spending time with Will, or taking quests from his father with Hazel. And when they were not busy, they spent time with other campers. In short, they barely spend time together when they were at the camp.

“Ok then, if Mister Rude stops being rude, I would like him to accompany us,” declared Alex giving a doubtful look to Nico who rolled his eyes at that.

“Only if you stop calling me _Mister Rude_ ,” huffed Nico extremely unamused.

“Fine, Nico is okay to you?”

“Deal,” he said giving a short nod to the other boy.

With that everyone else left the big house to come back to their camp activities. Percy and Nico went to their respective cabins to pack whatever they might need before coming back to reunite with Alex and leave. Nico only had to take his already prepared bag. Taking a lot of quests for his father had taught him that he had to be always prepared. He also took his Stygian Iron sword. To his not surprise, Will was already waiting for him outside the cabin. The son of Apollo liked to double-check that he had enough ambrosia and nectar for the quests, but also to make sure that Nico had a first aid kit just in cases. This situation was very convenient right now since he had some questions for the other demigod.

“I thought you didn’t want me to shadow-travel — especially not such a long distance — like ever again,” was the first thing that came out from his mouth. Will stayed silent while he checked the stuff inside his bag.

“I’m worried about the kid,” admitted Will while putting more rations of ambrosia inside the other’s boy bag. “And I trust you will follow my orders, about that Underworthly stuff of yours.”

“I will don’t worry too much,” huffed Nico. Most of the time Will acted like a mother hen to him which was annoying most of the time. But there was no way to deny him, at least Nico hadn’t found a way yet.

“And,” Will sighed a little. “I hope you don’t have much trouble traveling with Percy.”

Nico frowned, Will's tone of voice was full of worry and so did his eyes. “Don’t know where that came from, but it’ll be fine,” he tried to sound reassuring. Though he was still confused about what made the other demigod uneasy. He was fine with being around Percy. Will didn’t have the chance to say something else because they heard someone scream from afar.

“Hey! Di Angelo, are you coming or not? We are losing light,” apparently Alex was really impatient and wanted to leave as soon as possible. The son of Hades glared at the other boy even if said boy was really far from where they were.

“Everything will be fine as long as I don’t kill that guy,” he groaned while stomping into the big house direction, leaving Will behind.

“Be strong Nico,” was the last thing he heard from a very amused Will.

When he arrived at the big house, Percy was already there. Right next to him was Alex who looked really irritated. Once he spotted Nico he glared at him, like he was the reason behind his annoyance. 

“Thank you for enlightening us with your presence.”  
Nico had just opened his mouth to respond when he was stopped by Percy who put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Just ignore him,” he sighed. He suspected he would have to act as a mediator between the other two guys during the whole trip.  
Nico took a deep breath to calm himself down before talking to Alex. “Where to?” he asked while letting the air out of his lungs. 

“Seattle.”

“Seattle!?” Percy said sounding startled. He held Nico by his upper arm knowing Nico wouldn’t like to be touched anywhere else. “Oh gods, I hope we don’t run into the Amazons,” he motioned Alex to do the same as he did.

The offspring of Loki hugged Percy by his upper arm. He did not look comfortable by doing that but he kept throwing distrustful glances to Nico so being attached to Percy was better than having to hold the son of Hades. He gasped and tightened his hold on the son of Poseidon when they were swallowed by the shadows.


	2. One Lost Child

**Chapter One Lost Child**

Shadow-traveling was intense and exciting, the feeling of the adrenaline running through his body was very pleasant and maybe a little bit addictive. After several minutes of walking beneath the shadows, they got out of them. Alex was beaming.

“That. Was. Awesome!”

“I told you you’d like it,” snorted Percy shaking his head amused.

“So, where do we start searching?” whispered Nico sounding very exhausted.

Nico dragged himself against a wall taking a bottle of nectar out of his bag to drink the liquid. Shadow-traveling always drained him, not like before when he would be out like a candle for a week, but weak enough that he needed to drink nectar and eat ambrosia to stay awake for a couple of hours when necessary. He still required to sleep or nap for a better recovery.

“Alex right? In your dreams, where did you saw her?”

“In one of my dreams, she was supposed to be around this… I think it was a post office, but it looked abandoned,” replied Alex frowning concerned. “Are you alright?”

“That doesn’t help a lot,” grunted Nico ignoring the question.

“Sorry! But I don’t know this city, so excuse me if I feel a bit lost,” complained the offspring of Loki now glaring at him. Though that kind of information was not going to help them a lot.

“I could ask some ghosts around if they have seen her,” sighed Nico irritated while massaging his temple. Were they going to be fighting the whole time?

“That sounds creepy,” Alex pointed out. “I like it.”

Seeing the more than irritated expression on Nico's face Percy decided to intervene before anything bad happened. “Can you describe her?” he asked quickly to distract both... boys? Oh, wait. Alex was now a female. When did that happen?

“Brown curly hair, she’s around five feet, some elfish features,” she paused for a couple of seconds trying to remember anything, in particular, that might actually help them. “Oh. And her eyes are between brown and red.”

“Okay. Her eyes color might help us a lot. But let’s not get our hopes up.”

They walked down the streets of the city, and while Nico summoned a couple of ghosts to see if he could get some information, Alex and Percy asked several mortals if they have seen the girl with the description they had. It was almost sunset when they finally found the ghost of an old man, he told them he had seen a girl close their description, hiding on an abandoned building a couple of days before. It had been three days from that according to the ghost, but it was the closest they had been to find the girl so they kind of run to where the old man had indicated them.

“That’s the restaurant I told you about!” Alex exclaimed very excitedly jumping a little bit.

The place wasn’t big neither small. It looked like it used to be a Greek restaurant since from the outside Nico could recognize that the decorations were mainly inspired by Santorini. Honestly, what was the people’s fixation with that island? 

“I have a really bad feeling about this place,” whispered Percy while looking at some kind of inscription at the entrance of the restaurant. ‘Στυγάνωρ’. ‘Styganor’. Was that the name of the establishment?

“Same here, but I guess we should explore it,” Nico shrugged indifferently. They didn’t have another option especially since like Alex had told them a few minutes ago, this was the place where the girl might be.

“Come on turtles! We need to find the kid!”

Both of them rolled their eyes before following Alex who was already inside. It was strange, the place might be abandoned but there still were a lot of chairs and tables. They were cautiously checking the interior, nothing unusual so far until Percy came close to a door that had a “Staff Only” sign. An arrow blasted from one of the walls grazing Percy’s right cheek. Percy blinked stunned before noticing the note rolled into the shaft of the missile. It took another couple of seconds to process what just happened, then he grabbed the note and read it. He groaned annoyed when he observed who the warning note belonged to.

“I knew the inscription on the entrance was familiar!”

“What do you mean?”, asked Nico who already was at his side checking the scratch on his face.

“This is — or was — an Amazon base!”

The son of Hades stopped applying the ointment, staring wide-eyed at him.“That means this place is full of traps, especially for unauthorized men like us”.

“Oh. Then is it a good thing I’m a girl again?”

“You what!?” Nico stared at Alex in utter disbelief. The same way he did when he saw her kind of living state which gained him another glare from the now female.

“I’ll explain later, for now, let’s get out of here,” said Percy looking around cautiously now that they knew the place might be full of traps.

They walked warily back to the entrance. Just when they were close to the doors Alex stopped abruptly, she murmured beneath her breath and made and came back to where she came from. Percy tried to stop her with no luck. She had barely walked some steps when they heard a crack. The floor below the female opened up showing a trap door. Alex managed to hold off the edge of the floor which helped Percy and Nico to get her out of there. Of course, Percy ran with bad luck because they had just gotten Alex out of the trap when during the saving process he stumbled into another trap door. Failing of grabbing the edge he fell through a long tunnel. He heard his companions shouting his name before listening to the clack of the trap closing above him. A couple of seconds later he hit an rolled on the ground.

“Urgh… another trap,” he groaned lying on the floor, eyes closed because of the pain.

“Who… are you?”

Percy opened his eyes wide. Rolling on his back to look in the direction he had heard a tiny voice. Next to him was the curled body of a little girl. He sat up quickly, looking on the inside of his jeans pockets he found a safety light sticks. He thanked Annabeth in silence for making him carry those everywhere. After snapping the stick he brought it near to the body next to him. The girl shut her eyes annoyed by the sudden light until they were used to it. He estimated she might be between nine or ten years old. Brown curls framed her elvish face. And her eyes, just like Alex described them, they were a strange mix of brown and red. Those eyes look at him full of fear and a bit of curiosity.

“Uhm… hi… I’m… my name is Percy,” he said unsure of how to approach her. “And you are?”

“Jane”, she waved a little. “I like your eyes. They are beautiful.”

“Uh. Thanks. I like yours… I see you fell into the trap too.”

“The trap? Oh… you mean the hole that appeared from the floor?” she pointed above them.

“Yeah, that one,” he chuckled. “What were you doing in this place anyway? An abandoned building is not a safe place for a child.”

“I was hiding from… something.”

“Something?” Percy frowned at the ambiguous answer.

“Yeah… something,” said Jane looking everywhere but Percy. 

She looked rather uncomfortable by the topic so Percy decided to change the topic. Maybe the little girl has seen some stuff that she didn’t want to talk with him. After all, he was a stranger to her so obviously she distrusted him. And probably thought he wouldn't believe her. He needed to win her trust first.

“How… long have you been here?” Percy asked softly.

“I… I don’t know,” she sighed. “Maybe two or three days. It’s hard to know if time has passed when everything here is dark.”

“Right… wait. You’ve been stuck here for days!?”

“I’m not stuck! I could leave if I wanted to,” she complained pouting a little. Percy had to bite his tongue to not coo at her expression. Her pouty face was cute. “But mom told me that when in trouble I should wait for an adult to help me. Are you an adult?”

“Technically speaking, I am,” he tried to not feel offended by the question. But since he was still 20 he wouldn’t be legally an adult till the end of summer. “Listen someone is looking for you, he-she came all the way from Boston, to find you.”

“Who?” Jane stared at him with large curious eyes.

“A youngster, that apparently, has been dreaming about you, for days. She knew you were in trouble and came searching for help at the place we’re trying to bring you.”  
“It’s not an orphanage, is it?”

She sounded frightened when the question left her mouth. Orphanage? So the girl didn’t have anyone to look after her? The thought made the son of Poseidon sad. He reached the girl’s head and started caressing her hair. Looking at her with soft eyes.

“No, well… we do take care of some orphans, but it’s not an orphanage it is more… like a camp. A summer camp. We are one big, varied and dysfunctional family,” he smiled at the memory of all his friends.

“That sounds… fun,” she whispered with a small smile. “I like how it sounds.”

“Would you come with us?”

“Are you going to be there?” Jane asked hopefully.

“Of course. It’s like my second home.”  
Jane stayed silent before nodding eagerly. “I… I like how it sounds.”

“Good, now. How are we going to get out of here now?” Percy looked around the place searching for the exit, but since the cell, they were at was surrounded by hard stone leaving the place might be difficult.

“Why don’t we just… open the door?”

“But it’s locked. If I were a Hermes child it shouldn’t be a problem but…”

“There, it’s open now”

Percy blinked slowly before turning to look at Jane with wide eyes. “How did you do that!?” Percy exclaimed surprised.

“Eh. I just… did a little trick mom taught me,” she shrugged shaking her head. 

“I don’t know how, but I… I can open almost any kind of lock.”

“Your mom… taught you that,” he pointed out still stunned.

“Yeah! She could do it too! Gramps could do the same too!” Jane said proudly jumping on her feet. “Hermes child? What is that? Wasn’t Hermes a Greek god?”

“He is, I’ll explain to you later when we are reunited with the others.”

Jane gave a short nod as a response before going out of the cell. Percy followed her quickly and started inspecting the corridor. There was one way up and one way down. He decided that the way up was the most practical one to go out so he took the lead until he noticed that the little girl could pinpoint every single one of the hidden traps.

“Trap,” said Jane pointing at one boulder on the floor.

“Okay. How is that you managed to identify all the traps so far, but still you fell into one?” Percy asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I told you, I was hiding from something. That distracted me enough to not notice the… trap,” she sighed slightly uncomfortable before changing the topic quickly. “That’s the exit. Come on!”

/break\

“Percy!” shouted Nico and Alex almost in unison before running in his direction. The first to reach him was Alex who hit him with a lot of force on his upper arm.

“Ouch! Why was that!?” winced Percy glaring at her.

“For giving us the scare of our lives!” nagged Alex giving a glare in return.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Of course it was!”, now it was Nico’s turn to nag him.

“You know. I preferred when the two of you didn't get along.”

“We still don't get along,” Alex pointed out.

"We were… worried,” sighed Nico relieved. That was when Percy remembered a very unpleasant moment. This was the second time the son of Hades had seen him fell into the darkness. Tartarus. Nico had witnessed when he and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. “Just… whatever. How in my father were able to get out of there?”

“Right. I found her,” Percy pull the now nervous girl next to him. Jane greeted them with a shy wave of her hand. She was hiding behind the son of Poseidon looking at the other two with curious eyes.

“Can see that. That doesn’t answer my question though,” he pointed out.

“She got us out of there. I believe that she’s either a child or a legacy of Hermes.”

“She’s a legacy? What is a legacy?” frowned Alex confused by the term. “Is that something good or bad?”

“It means that she is a descendant of the god Hermes.”

“Wait, gods are real? Like, do they have powers and are immortal, and—” Jane started to ramble excitedly with large eyes.

“Whatever you read of the Greek gods, is real. Well, most of it, at least,” chuckled Percy amuse.

“Cool,” she gasped.

“Gods, I swear she’s like a clone of your 10-year-old self Nico,” Percy started to laugh at her reaction and the fond memory of the younger son of Hades when they just met.

“Shut up Jackson!” growled a very embarrassed Nico. A dark shade of pink was spread all over his face.

Alex enjoyed the sight of the rather flustered guy till something that Percy said got her attention.

“So, she has Greek blood… that means it shouldn’t be a problem to leave her with you?” Alex asked sounding hopeful.

“We just found her, and you are thinking about that!?”, protested the son of Poseidon.

“Don’t be mad! I stated that since the beginning and your leader said he had no problem with it,” she argued crossing her arms over her chest.

“You—”

“Can the two of you stop your bickering? I need help checking if she’s physically okay,” Nico requested without looking at them.

Neither Percy nor Alex had noticed when the son of Hades started to examine the little girl’s body, crouching so he could be at her eye level. Jane stayed still looking very interested in how the guy pampered her.

“You’re nice, I like you. I’m Jane,” she said with a small smile on her lips.

“Nice to meet you, Jane. I’m Nico,” he smiled briefly at her before going back to inspect her.

“Who is the girl with the green hair?” Jane asked tilting her head.

“I’m Alex.”

“I like your hair.”

“Then you have good taste,” Alex said with a grin on her face.

After some minutes of complete silence, which Nico really appreciated, the son of Hades took out of his bag the bottle of nectar and pour some of it into a small glass. He offered the glass to Jane who hesitated before taking it. She turned to look at Percy like she wanted to make sure that it was safe to drink it, he drank the liquid after receiving a thumbs up from him.

“She’s not badly injured. She does have some lesions because of the fall, but nothing a bit of nectar can’t heal,” assure Nico while standing up.

“Finally. Some good news” sighed Alex. She had barely finished the sentence when a loud growl echoed through the room, the three older demigods turned to look surprised at the source of the sound. Jane resembled a tomato.

“Sorry,” she whispered embarrassed.

“She hasn’t eaten or drank for days,” explained Percy with a playful smile.

“We should probably feed her something nice and warm,” Nico said thoughtfully. “I think I saw a good place for eating on our way here, should we give a try?”

“Food sounds like a good plan,” Alex agreed.

“Food is always a good plan Alex,” snorted Percy.

/break\

“So Jane,” started Alex awkwardly as they left the small restaurant where they had eaten. “I would love to know more about you, could you tell us a little bit about your family?”

“Oh. Uhm… Gramps, Mom and I used to live back in Calgary because gramps said it was safer. I really, really love Calgary. It’s so full of trees, of green, nothing like here where even the sea looks a bit grey. But when Gramps died two years ago Mom decided that we should move to Seattle. I didn’t like that at all. Mom said that we had relatives here, we never found them but we managed to live well, until…,” she stopped suddenly. 

“Jane, where is your mom?” Percy asked slowly.

“She died,” she said. Her face turned pale and her breathing became agitated. “She died protecting me.”

Alex was about to ask something else but she was stopped by Percy. Jane finally started to open up it would a bad idea to cut her off by asking her questions.

“We were coming back from her work when from a dark corner huge scorpion appeared. Mom told me to get away from, but I couldn’t move. I… I only stood there while the scorpion…,” she was taking really short breaths, her eyes were filling with tears. “I guess… I guess that’s what gramps said Calgary was safer. Monsters are everywhere here!”

Percy instinctively surrounded her with his arms, pulling her into a tight hug. Jane started to cry tugging the boy’s T-shirt hard. “Jane, how did you survived? How is that the scorpion didn’t kill you too?” he whispered on her ear not letting her go.

“I… I don’t know. I remember… everything seemed bigger for a moment. Like I… I kind of shrank,” she said unsure between sobs.

“Shrank?” Alex looked at the little girl surprised. She crouched down next to the other two giving a hard to decipher look to Jane. “Do you remember what you felt? What you thought when to shrink?”

“Alex, what are you…?”

“Hush,” said Alex glaring at Percy before returning her attention to the child. “Jane?”

“A cat. I wanted to transform into a cat and run away from there,” she said almost in a whisper.

“A cat?” Nico frown at the thought.

“Cats are amazing. They have huge reflexes when they feel threatened.”

“Thanks for the info Alex,” huffed Percy giving her a quizzical look. He honestly didn’t know where Alex wanted to go with those questions. What did cats have to do with the shrinking situation? The more he thought about it the less sense it made.

“Percy. I might need your help,” said Nico in a wary tone of voice.

The son of Poseidon frown at that tone of voice the other demigod used. It was unusual for Nico to talk in that manner. Though, his frown disappeared when he saw the reason behind it. At the corner of a nearby street, multiple dark figures emerged. “Pit scorpions.”

At the mention of the scorpions Jane look up, her eyes opened wide in fear and her breathing got worse again. “That’s the scorpion I told you about! Did it… did it came to kill me?” Jane asked agitated.

“Not our watch! Alex protect Jane!” Percy exclaimed pushing the girl to Alex’s side.

“Like I wouldn’t do that!” Alex protested pulling Jane even closer.

“Nico!”

“Coming!”

Percy ran into the first scorpion and slew it. Sadly, they weren’t near a water body or he could get rid of them easier. He turned to see Nico when he prevented one of the arachnids to get closer to the girls. The son of Hades practically danced while slaying the monsters, Percy grinned at that before joining him. In a matter of minutes, they have finished getting rid of all the annoying monsters. Once they kill the last one Percy smiled triumphant at Nico who looked at him surprised to then dodge his gaze, this confused the son of Poseidon. He decided to ignore it and went to approach the girls, to his surprise, there was only Alex sitting cross-legged in the ground while holding close to her chest something that looked like a furball.

“Alex, where is Jane?” Percy asked.

“Here,” she answered lifting a bit what it turned to be a small cat.

“No, that’s a cat,” he pointed out.

“Where did the cat came from?” Nico asked while getting closer to them.

“Can we forget the cat? Where is Jane? We left her with you?” Percy asked again now getting nervous by the absence of the little girl.

“She’s here,” said Alex impatiently lifting the cat some more.

“Very funny, seriously, where is she?” Nico asked sounding angry by the answers they were getting.

“Alex?”

“How many times do you want me to say it!?” Alex shouted clearly irritated by the constant ask of the same question. “Jane is here! This cute furball is Jane!” 

This time she raised her arms' full length with the small animal between her hands. The cat mewled at them. Its eyes were a color between brown and red, just like Jane’s. The realization hit the two sons of the Big Three like lightning.

"Oh for my father" bellowed Nico in a mild panic.

"She… she turned into a cat!" Percy yelped agitatedly, looking at the feline wide-eyed.

"More precisely, a kitten," corrected Alex, enjoying the sight of the boys losing their mind.

"Why you aren’t freaking out!?" Nico glared at her confused by the lack of reaction from her.

"Daughter of Loki? Shape-shifter? Remember?"  
Nico's eyes opened up some more at the statement. "She’s also a shape-shifter!?"

"Oh for crying out loud! Could the two of you stop screaming?" Alex yelled bothered after losing her patience over the two fussing boys. "You are making her nervous, that way she won’t be able to turn back into a human again."

/break\

“She’s your sister. She’s your sister!” Percy screamed in an accusatory voice. After calming down he dragged the offspring of Loki far away from Nico and Jane who was still in her cat form, to have more privacy. The poor son of Hades already looked dazed by one information bomb, he didn’t need another so soon.

“I told you to stop screaming," groaned Alex. “Yes, she’s my sister. And your mad because… ?”

“Because you knew all this time and said nothing,” he accused her. He wasn’t a fan of lying after all. “How did you even knew about her? You mentioned dreaming about her.”

“I did dream about her. What I didn’t say was that my… well, our parent was the one sending me those dreams,” she explained letting a sigh out. “He likes to mess or try to mess my sister Sam and my lives.”

“Ah, so you have another sister,” stated Percy cocking one eyebrow unimpressed which gained him angry glared from Alex.

“Listen. The thing is that the old man kept sending me those visions of her running into trouble. He threatened me, saying that if I didn’t found her quickly he would make sure that her life would be as lonely and wrecked as Sam’s and my life were.”

“Okay, got it, but why you never mentioned that we were searching for your sister? We discovered it because suddenly she shape-shifts into a cat. A freaking cat!” Percy yelled still clearly freaked out by the cat situation.

“Kitten,” corrected Alex again. “And next time you scream, you’re dead,” she said threatening him with her eyes.

“Whatever. She’s a Norse demigod, not that I have anything against it but, shouldn’t you guys be the ones taking care of her? Wouldn’t that be the best thing for her?”

“Sure Seaweed Brain, because raising a 10-year-old girl in a place where most of us are already dead and where we are getting ready for the end of the world is such a good plan,” she huffed rolling her eyes. “Also, didn’t you heard Annabeth? We could literally spend all our lives without knowing that we are demigods. Look, like you said, she’s a daughter of Loki, which means that her life isn’t going to be easy. I talked about this with Sam before coming to your camp and we both agreed that we didn’t want her to have the kind of life we had. 

“Being an offspring of Loki means suffering from discrimination at either of the nine realms, Sam and I somehow managed to gain a bit of respect, but we know that not everyone trusts us. Sure, some friends knew about our little sister and offered to take care of her while we were busy training, but we don’t want that for her. She’s only ten years old. She’s just a little child and she barely lost her mother a few days ago. We want her to grow as normal as possible, and somewhere she can be protected but also, where she can learn to take care of herself.”

Percy listened to her explaining the situation in silence which surprised him since his attention span wasn’t good, but somehow he understood her point of view. He felt that he was living a deja vu though. Similar to when Bianca told him and Nico why she decided to join the huntresses of Artemis, leaving her little brother behind.

“That’s why I thought about you,” said Alex interrupting his thoughts. “I heard stories of how you search for a little boy that went missing, or how you treat your little cyclops brother, and how you take care of your little sister. More importantly, I trust you because, even if Magnus was making you lose your patience, you keep helping him as much as you could.”

“How did you know about all that?” Percy asked stunned by the fact that she knew that much about him. He didn’t remember saying all those things when they spent that short time together.

“Annabeth told Magnus, and Magnus told me,” she smiled a little. You’re a nice guy Percy, that’s why… I want to entrust you the life of my little sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 13/03:  
> I forgot to add this and I just noticed, but “Styganor” is one of the many names the Amazons had and it means “those who loathe all men”.  
> Sorry.


	3. The Daughter of Loki

**Chapter Two The Daughter of Loki**

“Ok, so basically you’re telling me that she’s not only a legacy of Hermes but also a daughter of Loki,” Nico pointed out.

Just as Alex had finished clearing things out to Percy, Nico had called them back since Jane finally recovered her human form. So while Alex explained some shape-shifting stuff to her sister, Percy clarified the whole situation to the pretty much bedeviled son of Hades. So far, the day had been way too unpleasant for him. First this stranger — whose living status was giving him a headache — appeared at camp and asked for their help. Then Will dragged him into helping the stranger even though he was the first one to nag him every time he shadow-traveled. Just as they arrived at Seattle they found themselves inside of a former Amazon hideout where the idiotic stranger managed to fell into a trap and of course Percy run to save him — her — just to fell into another stupid trap. That last one brought back some ugly flashbacks from when the savior of Olympus and Annabeth fell into Tartarus while all Nico could do was watch and promise he would lead the quest to the Doors of Death. Luckily, the son of Poseidon managed to come back to them in one piece along with the girl they have been looking for. Worst of all —not that Nico would never admit it — he didn’t like how close this Alex dude and Percy looked. Especially not after having that horrid flashback and how for a tiny second he felt his heart jump after Percy smiled at him right away from defeating the pit scorpions. His mood made no sense, he has been over his feelings for Percy for years. Wasn’t he?

“Yes, pretty much,” shrugged Percy indifferently.

Nico blinked as he got out of his thoughts. Right. They were talking about the little shape-shifter… wait. Shape-shifter, daughter of another culture god and legacy of a Greek god. “Percy… we have a mini female version of Frank with us,” he said amazed, eyes wide open at the discovery.

“Most likely, yes,” snorted Percy at the comparison the other demigod made.

“Who is Frank?”

Nico and Percy turned to see to the little meddler. The little girl's eyes were shining with curiosity. Nico wondered if his eyes shone the same way back when he first met Percy. They probably did since Percy compared his younger self reactions to the girl ones earlier.

“A really good friend of ours who is legacy of Poseidon and son of Mars,” explained Percy ruffling her hair.

“Don’t forget my sister’s boyfriend,” sighed Nico at the reminder of the son Mars.

“Right,” Percy laughed at his reaction. “He can shape-shift like you.”

“Wow. Can I meet him?” she asked in complete awe which was a bit endearing for the son of Poseidon.

“We’ll see about it,” he said ruffling some more her already scruffy hair.

Jane smacked his hand annoyed before looking at him with pleading eyes. “Please.”

“No promises kiddo,” he laughed. Biting his lips so he wouldn’t coo at her. “First, we need to take you to the camp I told you about.”

“Fine,” she sighed defeated.

Alex — who had been watching the interaction silently with engaging eyes — approached Nico. “Can’t you take all of us back to the camp the same way you got us here?”

“I could, but I have strict orders from my doctor. I can only do a jump of that longitude once a week.”

“Oh right,” said Percy recalling how angry the son of Apollo would be if they returned right away to the camp. “Will might get mad at us if we make you overuse your shadow traveling.”

“The doctor’s name is Will, I supposed.”

“Yes, that’s his name, he was the guy that suggested you should take Nico with us,” Percy pointed out.

“Oh. One of the blonds,” said Alex, apparently being able to remember the other demigod by his hair color.

“Look, I can do one really small extra jump today and rest for what’s left of the day. Tomorrow I can take a medium jump, but I should rest again wherever we arrive so it would be a dead day. Then the day after that we can go back directly to the camp,” Nico explained them. That would be the quickest way he could take all of them back to camp without risking himself of falling into shadow comma. 

“So it would take us three days to get back to camp,” huffed Alex a bit annoyed.

“It’s still the fastest way,” said Percy trying to justify Nico’s plan because there was no way they would take a plane to get back to Long Island, Nico and Percy would be roast alive by Zeus. Pegasi weren’t an option either since they didn’t seem to like Nico — ‘He smells like death’ they’ll complain. Maybe if he had brought Mrs. O’Leary but the poor hellhound would also need frequent rest after every trip, so she was another no.

“Percy is right. I’m sorry I can’t take us back quicker but… doctor’s orders,” he sighed annoyed at the reminder of Will’s mother hening.

“I would love to meet again this doctor of yours,” Alex smiled mischievously.

“You can once we are back in the camp and he's not mine,” said Nico glaring at the smile the female was giving him.

“He’s not?” asked Percy astonished.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” asked the offspring of Loki confused. “Don’t you go to the same camp all the years?”

“We do but…,” replied the son of Poseidon scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

“Don’t even ask Alex, he’s Captain Oblivious,” said Nico sounding exasperated.

“Hey!” complained Percy glaring at him.  
Alex laughed loudly at the boy’s reaction. “I already like you a lot, di Angelo.”

“You’re welcome?”

“But… when did you guys break up?” Percy wanted to know while also trying to get back the previous topic.

“Around… two years ago. Or it was three years ago?” Nico answered unsurely. Not giving importance to those types of dates apparently. “I guess you didn’t notice since last year you were sulking about your own break-up.”

Percy looked at him startled. Right. It had been a year since he and Annabeth broke up. To tell the truth, he didn’t remember a lot about last summer. He barely remembered spending some time with Jason, Grover, and Rachel, aside from that he was sure he spent the whole day locked in his cabin. Guilt filled his heart when he discovered that Nico had been in a similar situation and he didn’t notice, also Nico said nothing, he didn’t distance himself from camp, but at the same time, he kept all his emotions to himself. Percy hoped that Jason had been at the son of Hades too, he also made a mental note to ask the son of Jupiter about the Solangelo break up because he was sure Nico wouldn’t want to talk about that with him.

“Uhm, excuse me?”

Percy was taken out of his thoughts by the uncertain voice of the girl. “Sorry, Jane. Is everything okay?” he asked apologetically.

“Can we go to my house? I would like to pick some of my things before leaving,” she said in a pleading voice, looking at the three of them unsure of what they would say.

“Sure but…,” he turned to see the son of Hades. “How are you feeling Nico?”  
“I’m fine, but I’m not sure if we should waste the last trip planned for today to go to her house”

“You know, for once we should act like normal people and take the bus,” said Alex cocking one unimpressed eyebrow at them, like it was the most obvious thing to do.

“There’s a bus that passes one block away from here, and it would leave us close to my house!” said Jane eagerly.

“See?” Alex smiled at the boys knowingly. Nico and Percy hated said smile.

“We’ll take the bus then,” groaned Percy irritated.

“Lead us to the bus stop, kitten,” laughed Alex amused.

“Meow,” replied Jane before running down the street. The boys snorted at her response following her closely.

/break\

While looking around the apartment taking everything that seems necessary for Jane — not that she was helping because the little girl wanted to take every single thing with them — Nico found something interesting hanging on the room that used to work as an office. A seax. Nico took the short sword to inspect it. The weapon’s blade had some engravings like nordic knots, said blade seemed to have never been used but it was very sharpened which was rare for being only a decorative object. Maybe a family heirloom? Jane might not need it for now, but Nico knew first hand that the sooner she learned how to use a weapon the safer she’ll be. He took the weapon and packed it with the other things he had with him before leaving the room and reuniting with the others in the living room. He had just walked into the place when he immediately noticed that the atmosphere around the other three was somehow off.

“What’s wrong?” he asked not wanting to beat around the bush.

“Uhm… I was wondering,” started Jane doubtfully. “Do you think we could use this extra trip you’ve been talking about…”

“Do you want to go somewhere specific?” Nico asked when he noticed where the question was going. He was a patient person, but it was already dark outside and he wanted then to get to a safe place as quickly as possible.

“Home,” she answered shortly.

“Aren’t we there?” Percy asked bedeviled.

“No, this is my house, not my home.”

“I think she means Calgary guys,” said Alex looking thoughtful.

“Oh,” Percy looked at her surprised. She had mentioned before how much she loved the place her mother and she used to live when her grandfather was still alive. “What do you think Neeks?”

“If you don’t call me that…,” growled Nico glaring hard at the other demigod. He really disliked that nickname. “I don’t see a problem. It’s closer than the place I was thinking.”

“Where were you thinking?” Alex asked curiously.

“Regina,” answered Nico shortly. He made a motion to the others to grab him as he started to summon shadows around them. It was time for another shadow-travel.

“I have no idea where is that. Let’s go to Calgary then,” said Percy offering his hand to Jane who took it without hesitating. He then proceeded to hold Nico’s upper arm again.

“Regina is a city in Canada, Jackson,” huffed Alex shaking her head in disbelief. This time she took the free shoulder of the son of Hades which made the later uncomfortable, but he decided to said nothing.

“As I said, let’s go to Calgary,” groaned Percy rolling his eyes irritated. He tugged the little girl closer to them as they were surrounded by darkness.

/break\

“That. Was. Amazing!” exclaimed a very hyped Jane. She was jumping and running a lot while they walked down the streets. If it wasn’t because Percy and Alex were busy carrying an extremely exhausted Nico, Percy would be holding her back into place though he kept wary eyes on her. He started to noticed how the more comfortable she felt with them the more her ADHD emerged. 

“Another one that loves to shadow-traveling. We should start a club,” Alex joked around.

“Yeah, but keep it in secret from Will. If he knew, he would freak out,” said Nico before yawning. It was obvious he was trying really hard to not fell asleep.

“I can confirm that,” laughed Percy.

They had agreed they would spend the night at Jane’s former house. Even though her mother decided they should move to Seattle, she hadn’t had the heart to sell the house they had grown up in. The house was located nearby the Bow River, so once they dropped Nico and Jane in an improvised bed — she somehow became instantly sleepy while sitting next to Nico — Percy found himself sitting next to Alex on the riverbank, dipping their feet in the water.

“Not that I care or something, but what exactly is your story with Nico?” Alex said after a long silence. Percy kind of guessed she had been wanting to ask that during the whole day.

“And you say that you don’t care?” he huffed rolling his eyes.

“I don’t care, I’m merely curious,” she clarified. “Especially since I’ve been spending the last 24 hours with the two of you and apparently I’m going to spend another 48 too. You seem to be close, but distant at the same time.”

“We have a very rocky story.”

“That bad?”Alex asked raising both eyebrows.

“Kind of. You see… when we met, I was on a quest to bring him and his sister to the safety of the camp. Everything went wrong. We were attacked by a manticore and Annabeth got adduced. A little after that his sister decided to be part of this girl power gang. She became part of the quest sent to save Annie and the moon goddess, Artemis. I wasn’t supposed to be part of the quest but I wanted to help to save my friend, also… I made a promise to Nico that I would try to keep her sister safe. I promised…”

“But you failed…,” Alex looked at him like she was finally understanding something.

“Yeah…,” he sighed uncomfortably.

“What happened?”

“I thought you didn’t care,” he frowned confused at the incoherence of her words.

“Urgh, just keep talking. Finish the story.”

Percy stayed silent for a long minute before continuing with the anecdote. “During the quest, we got into a lot of troubles. One of them was while we were in a place where the Gods send the failures of devices they were planning to use. We were supposed to not touch anything because that place was a trap. It was filled with things we thought useful, but of course, they weren’t. Bianca — that the name of Nico’s sister — she took a statue of a game Nico used to play because according to her it was the only one his little brother didn’t have. That, of course, activated a trap. She felt guilty about it and decided that she should save us. She did save us, but… in the end, she sacrificed herself for us.

“After the quest was finished, we went back to the camp. I was the one that told Nico that his sister had died during the quest. He was so disappointed and angry at me. He hated me. We were talking when a group of skeletons — that were pursuing us during the whole quest — appeared close to us. I tried to save Nico, but he ended up saving me by splitting the earth to swallow them. Though, I think he did it by accident. After that, he went running into the woods and disappeared for months.”

“So it’s him. The boy Magnus told me you searched like crazy when he went missing,” said Alex amazed by the realization.

“I… I didn’t search him like crazy,” Percy complained embarrassed. Though he knew it was true. “But yes, it was him.”

“I still feel that I’m still missing something though.”

“Well… he might have tried to kill me, twice, one not on purpose. Kind of lied to me when I didn’t have memories, but because his father asked him to not tell me a thing. He also saved my life and help me out a lot of times,” Percy didn’t notice but he started to ramble angrily. “And confused me as heck when he declared that he used to have a crush on me, for years! To later say that he got over it and that I wasn’t his type.”

Alex was trying really hard not to laugh or snort at his ranting over how the other guy made him feel. “He said that?” she asked biting hard her lips.

“Oh, he did. Like hell he did! Don’t laugh Alex! Is not funny!” he snapped when he noticed all the involuntary movements of her body while trying to suppress her laugh.

“I’m sorry,” she said unapologetically. She took deep breaths trying to calm herself down because even if she found funny his rambling she noticed how serious the boy was about how confusing the whole Nico situation was for him. Once she recovered her breath she approached him more humorlessly. “And you never talked about that with him?”

“How? He cut me off after that and then some months later he started dating Will,” he said exasperated. He sounded like he had really thought about it, but never actually did something.

“The doctor,” Alex pointed out.

“Yes, the doctor,” he sighed. “Also, I was dating Annabeth back then, so I didn’t actually bring it out till now that I’m telling you.”

“You are a mess,” sighed Alex giving him little pity pats on his back.

“I think I am,” he groaned burying his face on his hands.

/break\

Nico would be glaring at the other two young adults just as they entered the house if he hadn’t had his hands full of the sobbing mess Jane was. He had woken up half an hour ago when he felt an extra weight over his chest followed by some high-pitched whimpers.

“I could use some help,” he said sharply without stopping to stoke the striped fur of the kitten. That did catch their attention, Jane had turned into a cat again by feeling completely distressed.

“Nick. What happen?” Percy asked softly. He joined the other boy on the improvised bed and started petting the kitten.

“Jane had a nightmare,” answered Nico heavy sighing.

They stayed silent looking at the furball, they needed her to turn back into a human before asking questions, but first, they needed her to calm down because she still couldn’t control her power and it seemed to activate every time she felt stressed. Just as the kitten began to purr, Jane was able to recover her human form. Though she still tugging Nico’s shirt and her eyes were puffed out, probably from crying before turning into a cat.

“Kitten, what’s wrong? What did you dream about?” asked Alex in a whisper. Her voice was full of worry.

“Mom…,” she answered hiding her face on Nico’s shirt. “She was in trouble.”

“It was only a nightmare. I’m sure she is safe and sound,” the other offspring of Loki answered trying to sound reassuring, but she failed.

“How can you know!?” Jane snapped at her. “What if she in danger in the afterlife!?”

Concerned that she might turn into a cat again, Nico held her by the back of her neck and started to give her little massages putting some pressure too. Jane relaxed a bit at that, lying more comfortable on the older boy’s chest. Percy interpreted that as a reflex, she probably felt secure being embraced by the son of Hades which kind of relieved him.

“Why don’t we ask her?” Nico asked after a couple of minutes.

“Hmm?” Jane hummed confused, she blinked at him with sleeping eyes as she was starting to drifting off to sleep on his arms.

“I can summon your mother’s soul,” he explained in a calm tone of voice. Trying to not alarm the already serene daughter of Loki. Though, when he felt the rushed movement over his chest he knew he had been unsuccessful.

“Can you do that?” Jane asked with large hopeful eyes.

“He can,” said Percy encouragingly. “He is the son of Hades after all.”

“What do you think, Jane?” Alex asked warily. She didn’t want to make her snarl at her again.

“Is your decision kit,” said Nico looking at her assuredly. He wanted to let her know that the final decision was up to her.

Jane looked down thoughtfully. She stayed quiet for a while before looking back at Nico’s eyes. “I want to see mom.”

/break\

Summoning a deceased soul was easy as long as Nico had food which he didn’t — he could also use animal blood, but he didn’t want to freak out the younger girl. So while Percy and Alex went to obtain the missing factor, he and Jane took a very needed nap. An hour later the four of them were next to the riverbank, the pit had already been dug and filled with the food, the only missing step was the chants in Ancient Greek.

“Before I start I need your mother’s name. Full name,” he said looking at Jane. So far, the little girl had only given them her first name, but they would eventually need to know her last name.

Jane blinked bewildered before answering. “Avery Carlson.”

Carlson? Nico made a mental note so he wouldn’t forget her last name just in case it was needed. He started chanting and after some minutes some ghosts started to gather around them, but Nico didn’t let them get close to the food. He sent them a warning vibe that only Avery Carlson was allowed to get near the food. It didn’t take long when a silvery spirit approached them. It took another moment before the spirit took the form of a ghostly woman. She looked like she was probably in her mid-thirties, same elvish features and brown curly hair as Jane, except for her blue eyes. She was wearing jeans and an olive green blouse, along with some boots.

“Mom!” Jane called out between sobs. No one had noticed when she had started crying again.

“Jane? Kitty, is that you?” Avery’s ghost looked around confused. Once she spotted her daughter she tried to reach her, but she back away when she saw her hand evaporated as she got close to the living body. She was made of mist after all. “What… what is going on here?”

“Nico helped to summon you. He is a son of Hades.”

“The son of Hades?” she blinked surprised. Then she turned to look at him curiously. “Why did you summon me?”

“I asked him to! I had a nightmare where you were suffering,” explained her daughter ducking her head. 

“Oh kitty,” she smiled at her with soft eyes. “You don't have to worry about me. I’m perfectly fine.”

“You are?”

Percy smiled at the hopeful tone of voice the younger girl had used. Somehow after living through the traumatic experience of seeing her mother died, she was constantly hopeful. Though he suspected it was her coping mechanism because she had also stayed alone in the dark for a couple of days, probably hoping that someone would find her. He shook his head trying not to think what would have happened to her if they hadn’t found her soon. 

“Remember that place in the Underworld I told you about during your bedtime stories?”

“The one that started with Ely?” asked Jane rubbing her eyes to get rid of the remaining tears.  
Avery nodded happily at her answer. “Elysium. That is where I am staying now.”

“It’s a really good place. Don’t worry about it kit. Your mom is safe,” assured Nico kneeling down in front of Jane so he could look directly into her eyes.

“Promised?”

“Promise,” said Nico offering his pinky finger to her. Jane looked her finger with his before colliding face-first against the older boy, hugging him as tightly as she could.

Percy looked at the scene with gentle eyes. Who would have thought that the son of Hades was so good with kids? Of course, when it came to things related to the Underworld Nico was the best informed. Percy would have enjoyed the sight for a long time if it wasn’t for a sudden gasping sound. He turned to see where the sound came from just to find Avery looking at Alex petrified.

“You! You look a lot like him!” she exclaimed pointing at the other girl.

“Like who?” Alex asked looking at the others completely lost.

“Like…” Avery said sounding agitated. It took her a couple of seconds before being able to talk again, this time she looked at Jane. “Your father.”

Jane looked at her mother stupefied. Her eyes were so wide that Nico and Percy feared they would fell. “You never mentioned him before. Whenever I asked you said you had only met him once.”

“Because I only met him once,” she argued. “I met him because he was trying to deceive me. Of course, he failed. Then he tried to prank me, but instead, I pranked him. We spent our time together playing and making jokes. Trying to fool the other. We really only spend one day together. Who are you? Why do you look a lot like him?”

“Because Jane’s father is my mother,” shrugged Alex not sure of how to explain the similarities between Loki and her to the woman. “So Jane and I are siblings. We both are offspring of Loki, the god of mischief.”

“But that’s… Norse mythology,” whispered the woman in disbelief.

“Turns out that Greek myths are not the only myths that are real,” intervened Percy. He had interacted once with Egyptian descendants and with the Norse. Though he hoped he didn’t have to interact with more pantheons, two were more than enough.

“Mom. Alex is nice. And she is really, really cool!” said Jane when she noticed the distrustful look her mother was giving to her newly discovered sibling.

“You like her, don’t you?”

“I do! And I kind of trust her, even if sometimes she doesn’t know how to treat me,” she explained while playing nervously with her hands. “But she’s amazing. Also… I trust in Nico and Percy too”

“Could notice,” chuckled the woman. Her image flickered for a moment making her look at Nico with a sad smile. “Is it time?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, but I can’t keep you here any longer,” whispered Nico apologetic.

“It’s ok,” she sighed dispiritedly.

“Mom?”

Avery's eyes focus on her daughter. “Try to stay away from trouble,” she said seriously, like if it was a habit of her to get into trouble.

“I can’t promise that,” she sighed in defeat. Okay. Maybe she was a magnet for trouble. Probably even worse than Percy.

“Then try to behave. Or, I’ll come as a ghost to ground you,” she warned even more seriously. Percy bit his lips hard so he wouldn’t laugh off the terrified face Jane made at her mother. Though he was cut off when he saw Avery looking at him with the same sober expression. “Promise me you’ll keep her safe,” she pleaded to him.

“I… I…” Percy stammered as he was taken completely off guard.

“Promise me. Please.”

Percy unconsciously turned to look Nico just to avert his gaze right away. He didn’t want to agree in such a big commitment again, especially not in front of Nico, after all, he had failed to keep Bianca safe, but also he had made Nico promise that he would lead the Seven to Door of Death. He didn’t want to do another oath of that kind, but he didn’t want to let the mother go back into Elysium without knowing that her daughter would be safe. Sally would have appreciated that somebody had promised his safety during all his quest or… when he disappeared for almost a year after being abducted by Hera. Without even noticing Nico went to stand next to him, he only became aware of the taller demigod presence when he gave a little squeeze on his shoulder, making Percy jump in surprise. 

“We promise,” he said sounding very determined. “All of us will keep her safe.”

Percy looked at him startled, but when he noticed that the ghost was waiting for his response he only gave a short nod.

“Thank you,” Avery whispered before disappearing into the mist of the river. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s another chapter. Yay!  
> So, I already organized my ideas (I actually made a planner for this) and the fic will be around 15 chapters plus the prologue. The plan is to upload monthly, but it might change depending on how fast I write the next chapters.  
> See you around and thanks for the kudos and bookmarks!


	4. From Bloomington to Niagara Falls

**Chapter Three From Bloomington to Niagara Falls**

No one dared to say a thing as they returned to the house. It was silent since Jane fell quickly asleep on Nico’s back and Percy kept avoiding Nico as he was still startled by the decision of the son of Hades. That confused Nico who decided to stand up for Percy earlier as he had seen the conflicted expression he had when he was asked to secure the safety of the little girl. Nico knew very well what had crossed the mind of the older demigod when Avery requested him such thing, Bianca, even if Percy claimed that he had already got over that incident Nico was pretty sure he didn’t. She had become a sore topic for the son of Poseidon just as it was for Nico, Hazel, and Hades. He wanted to assure Percy that he didn’t have to bear the blame, that it was in the past, but also knew that it wasn’t the only thing bothering the older demigod so he decided to leave it for another day. He had to approach the matter slowly.

The next day the group decided to have breakfast before leaving, that way they could recharge energy and also choose where they should do the next shadow-travel. They ended up deciding for Minneapolis.

“Trees! I missed seeing so many trees!” Jane exclaimed as they were entering the park where they would do the jump. The place was almost empty so they wouldn’t attract any attention from the mortals.

“I’m guessing your favorite color is green,” chuckled Nico as he saw the excitement irradiating from her.

“It is! Like… like… the forest! And kiwis! And… and… Percy’s eyes!”

Percy blushed at that, gaining him the snickers of Nico and Alex which made him blush even more. Once they were farther away from the streets, all the demigods got hold of the son of Hades as he summoned the shadows to surround them. It took a couple of minutes until they saw the light again.

"Really? A cemetery?" Alex frowned at Nico unimpressed of the place they have arrived to.

Nico decidedly ignored her as he leaned against the tree whose shadows they came out from. Jane gave him some ambrosia — when did she get it from his bag? — while Percy checked their surroundings, confirming that nobody had seen when they arrived onto the place. After Nico had recovered enough to walk, they got outside of the cemetery to search for a place where they could ask for directions and a place where Nico could rest until the next day. 

Luckily the cemetery was close to a gas station so Percy went inside with Alex to ask some questions. Meanwhile, Nico waited outside, taking care of Jane. Although for him it was the other way since the younger girl was constantly telling him to sleep a bit or asking him if he needed more ambrosia. Nico noticed she was a little bit bossy which made him think that she was going to get along really well with Will. That was going to be a big problem for him.

“Any luck?” Nico asked as he saw Percy and Alex getting out of the store.

“Yeah, the manager recommended us to go to this place called… Mall of America?”

  
Jane gasped so hard that the three older demigods looked at her alarmed. “I heard about that place! Can we go there? Please?”

Nico opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by the groaning of Alex. “The manager said it’ll take us half an hour to get there by foot,” she said irritated.

“We can take a taxi,” said Percy pointing to the street.

“With which money!?”

Nico all the while rolled his eyes at Alex. “I’ll pay, so stop complaining Alex.”

Alex gave him a confused look but decided to listen to him. She was curious about how the son of Hades was going to pay. Percy just snorted as he knew that Hades had given Nico and Hazel a credit card with a limited budget of ten thousand dollars per month. 

It took them 5 minutes to get a taxi and another 10 minutes to arrive at the mall. It was not what they expected. The place was huge! It not only had stores but also an amusement park, an aquarium and the best of all — according to the older demigods — a hotel. They would actually be able to sleep in a comfortable bed. So before they were dragged to the attractions by the youngest of them they booked two rooms, one for the sisters and other for the boys, and left their things in them. Surprisingly, Jane made them go to the aquarium, apparently, she liked sharks and stingrays though she went to hide behind Percy when she saw the caiman.

“You know. I think we need to buy you some clothes,” said Alex thoughtfully as they exited the aquarium.

“Wha- No!” Jane complained, glaring at her sister.

“You need new clothes. The ones you have are really old,” Alex pointed out.

Jane made a face as she pulled her clothes to look at them. The boys snickered when the little girl groaned as she was pulled by Alex in the direction of the stores. Then Alex stopped, she gave a look to the boys before leaning so she could whisper something to Jane, whatever she said made the girl smile and nod eagerly. They started to panic when Alex went back to them.

“The same goes for the two of you,” she said, taking both boys by the wrist so she could pull them along. Nico and Percy were so startled by the action that it took them some seconds to process the information before being able to protest. Percy was the first one to complain annoyed.

“Why us?”

“Yeah, why us? I like my clothes!” Nico said joining Percy in the argument. Shopping clothes was definitely out of his favorite hobbies, he had been dodging Hazel’s constant pleas about the matter and he was definitely not going to submit to the green-haired girl.

“If I have to pass this torture, so do you,” said Jane nearly pouty, looking at them with big begging eyes. Damn those were very convincing eyes, almost like… 

“Not fair!” Nico groaned averting the girl’s eyes, turning to glare Alex. “Why did you teach her how to do kitten begging eyes?”

“Oh believe, I didn’t teach her that,” she said giving the boy a large proud grin. “She learned it all by herself.”

Nico gave a quick look to Percy who looked already conquered by those reddish-brown eyes, looking a little frustrated. He could only guess that no one had ever used that begging strategy against him after all the baby seal eyes were his trademark. Though the son of Hades made the mistake of looking again at Jane’s eyes while making fun of the other boy. He winced and cursed on his mind, trying to resist them just to give up almost immediately.

“Fine!” Nico growled, dropping his shoulders in defeat.

“Yes!” Jane jumped triumphantly before running in direction of the clothing stores.

The other three demigods followed her closely, the two boys looking at the floor with miserable expressions which made Alex laugh sardonically.

“The two of you are weak.”

“Alex please, don’t,” Percy whined without denying what she said.

/break\

It was around seven in the afternoon when they returned to the hotel, Percy felt extremely burnt out after spending the whole day shopping, so he excused himself and went for a swim at the hotel’s pool. The water was colder than he expected for an indoor pool, but it didn’t stop him from sinking into the water, by using his powers he turned the temperature up. After half an hour there he felt physically better, but as his body felt healed his mind started to wander around a topic that had been bothering for over a year, his break up with Annabeth. His memories last summer were fussy, he mostly remembered being locked up in his cabin for weeks, only leaving the place to eat or walk around the lake in the company of Jason, Rachel or Grover. He could still remember Rachel hugging him tightly while assuring him in a soothing voice that everything was going to be ok and that with time things would get better than they were now. He wasn’t sure if at that moment she said it as a good friend or if she had seen something about his future. Percy liked to think it was both.

“There’s no way I can get you out of the water, is it?”

The sudden voice of Nico got him out of his thoughts, said teenager was looking at him while sitting in one of the chairs next to the pool. “Hey, Neeks! And no,” Percy smiled, swimming to where the other boy was.

“Stop calling me that,” growled Nico irritated, glaring at Percy. He really hated whenever someone called him with that ridiculous name. Maybe he didn’t hate that much being called that way by the son of Poseidon. Not that he would ever admit since he was over him. Totally over him.

“Nope,” Percy grinned at him amused then he laughed at the displeased face Nico did because of his answer. “Are the girls fine? …Alex is still a girl, right?” he asked uncertainly about which gender the offspring of Loki was right now.

“I think so?” Nico shrugged doubtfully. “Honestly I don’t know how you can identify that.”

“Depends on how she expresses herself? She’s usually more aggressive as a boy.”

“Good to know,” grunted Nico. “And they are fine. Alex was teaching Jane how to control her shape-shifting so she won’t turn into a cat by accident again. I thought it was a nice way for them to bond so I left them alone.”

“You did the right thing. Even if Alex said that she didn’t want her to live where she is, I think she does want to get along with new her sibling,” Percy smiled, resting his head over his folded arms to be more comfortable. 

Nico blinked a little bit distracted by the view. Percy always looked beautiful surrounded by water and that was something he would never deny, he wasn't blind. He blinked a couple of times before regaining his focus. What were they talking about? “Right … about that. Did I understand well? She asked you to take care of her little sister?”

“She didn’t ask, but yeah, she kind of make that clear. She wants me to raise her,” Percy frowned at the thought. 

“Are you going to do it?” Nico asked slowly. 

He had seen Percy deal with kids during camp, but to raise one was something completely different from teaching them. Even if the girl was already old enough to do something on her own she still needed someone to guide her. Nico had no doubt that Percy could be a good role model for her, but he needed to be sure that that was what the son of Poseidon wanted.

“Do I have an option?” Percy huffed rolling his eyes. He didn’t say no though.

“You do, but by the look on your face and how you’ve been acting around the girl I would say you already made a decision,” Nico arched an inquisitive eyebrow.

Percy averted his eyes he wasn’t sure what to answer. If he was being honest, he was still skeptical about this whole you have to raise someone else's sister on your own situation. Not because he didn’t adore Jane, the girl had gained his heart almost instantly, but he doubted that he was ready for such responsibility. He had barely recovered himself from his break up with Annabeth… kind of… and his department was surely not kid-friendly. But he didn’t want her to stay the whole year in the camp, especially not after what she had been through recently.

Percy heaved a sigh, deciding to give it a thought until the end of summer. He would consider what to do then. He turned to see Nico and smirked to him. “Do you want to swim with me?” he asked tilting his head.

“What?” Nico asked startled. That took him completely off guard.

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” insisted the son of Poseidon, offering his hand to the other boy.

“You know that Jason and I are not comfortable in your father’s domain,” he pointed out trying to avoid being on the water with his former crush. “Also is really cold tonight.”

“It’s just a pool, an indoor pool not the sea. Also, you are used to the cold,” Percy crooked an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Percy…”

“Please?”

Oh no. The freaking baby seal eyes attached again. Nico clenched his teeth annoyed. First, the girl used the kitten eyes to convince him, now Percy was doing his infamous but equally effective baby seal eyes. Maybe Alex was right and he was weak… but only to those eyes!

“Urgh… fine,” he groaned in defeat. He heard Percy say a triumphant Yes while he got undressed, leaving only his boxers on.

Nico entered cautiously into the pool, holding Percy’s hand in the process, not that he needed to since he could reach the bottom without any problem.

“Are you okay?”

“No,” he snorted amused. He may feel the pool’s floor below his feet, but that didn’t mean that he was very comfortable being surrounded by water even if it was only a small body of water like the son of Poseidon said before.

“I got you, Nico, don’t worry,” he laughed trying to sound reassuring. 

“I’m more worried now,” Nico jocked before being pulled by the other boy deeper into the water.

“You know… I didn’t notice before but you are taller than me now,” said Percy in acknowledgment. This was the first time that he paid close attention to the Italian. Somehow he had gotten two inches taller than him during the last years.

“Really Percy? I’ve been taller than you since last summer,” he said shaking his head in disbelief. Not even surprised at how dense the smaller demigod could be. 

“I just said I didn’t notice before,” Percy glared at him slightly offended and pouty.

Nico laughed at how adorable the son of Poseidon looked. The two of them started to move around the pool, Percy tried to show Nico how to float but failed miserably so he just made the water support the other demigod’s weight. Half an hour later they were both floating while the son of Poseidon played with the water, making some animal forms with it.

“What were you thinking about?” Nico asked without taking his eyes off the watery figures above them.

“Uh, what?” Percy asked blinking a little. Did he zoned out at some point? Though he rarely stopped paying attention to his friends when they were talking.

“When I came here searching for you, you looked like there was something on your mind. What was it?” Nico gave him a curious look. 

After all those years of not running away and finally staying at the camp for a long time, he started to learn Percy’s expressions whenever he was overthinking. The older boy tended to keep whatever was troubling him to himself, sometimes he might talk about it with Jason or Rachel – because almost nothing escaped the knowing eyes of the Oracle of Delphi – but most of the time he didn’t want to worry his friends so he stayed quiet and handled everything by himself. And how did Nico knew all those things? Because he also hid his feelings for a long time, afraid of what the others would say if they knew the truth about him. So, of course, he knew when someone was hiding something, especially if that something was sentimental stuff.

“About my feelings,” Percy finally admitted in a small voice.

Knew it Nico thought before sighing. “Are you still thinking about your break up with Annabeth?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes. No. …kind of,” said Percy before groaning frustrated, taking his hands to his face.

“Come again?” 

Percy heavy sighed and stopped swimming. Nico did the same, he looked quizzically at the older demigod who seemed to be lost in his thoughts. It took a couple of minutes before Percy started talking.

“I think it was my fault you know? … that we drifted away. After all, we lived through, after we got out of … you know… down there,” he said with a shaky breath. The memories of Tartarus still haunted him even after all those years, they weren’t as bad as before, but they were still there. “ I couldn’t open to her. She noticed something was off, but she never pushed me to talk about it. I think she was waiting for me to tell her what was wrong like we used to do when we were kids, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want her to deal with my problems. She didn’t tell me but I know she was also struggling a lot with her own problems. Also… I think… no, I know she was afraid of me.”

That made Nico blink stupefied. “Afraid of you? Why would she feel that way about you?” he asked out of curiosity. Because seriously, the son of Poseidon was extremely powerful, but that had never scared Annabeth before. So what might have happened to make her feel unsafe about being with Percy?

“I did something while we were in Tar… down there,” he gave Nico an analyzing look, he seemed to be deciding whenever he could tell the son of Hades what he did or not. Though, Nico also recognized something that looked like fear. Fear of being rejected and that was a fear Nico knew well, but why Percy was feeling scared of being rejected by him? He of all people would never – “I almost kill a goddess, Akhyls, with her own tears. Annie stopped me before I got any farther.” 

That was by far not what Nico was expecting. He knew Percy was extremely powerful. After all, the son of Poseidon had fought several gods, titans, and giants before, but to get to the point where he could almost kill a goddess? Yeah, he could imagine that.

Nico got out of his thoughts when he saw the other boy taking his distance from him. Damn, he probably misinterpreted Nico's lack of reaction as fear to what he said. “Hey,” he said with a soothing voice while putting his hands on the other boy’s shoulders. “It’s ok. I’m not scared of what you did or you. I'm sure you were only trying to protect Annabeth down there,” Nico said without staring away from Percy’s eyes.

Percy looked at him surprised. Probably didn’t expect the other demigod to be so understanding or because he didn’t push him away after telling him what he did. 

Nico all the while gave him a small smile. “You are not the only that has done terrible things just to protect someone dear. So if you believe that you are going to scare me away because you almost kill a goddess just to protect your girlfriend of that time… you are wrong Percy… because that pretty much sounds like something you would do. Your loyalty is your fatal flaw after all.”

The son of Poseidon gave him a sad smile, though he also seemed relieved when he heard Nico talking about his fatal flaw like it wasn’t something bad. Because for Nico it wasn’t a terrible flaw, dangerous yes, but so far not as bad as hubris. 

Nico gave a last squeeze on Percy’s shoulders before letting them go. “It’s getting late. We should go back to our room and rest. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the camp and we should be well-rested before arriving there.”

Percy nodded slowly at that before they got out of the pool and Percy dried both of them. They talk about trivial things on their way to their room though it was still awkward for Nico since he did most of the talking while Percy only replied with smiles, short nods, and very few words once in a while. 

Just before they got into their respective beds Percy spoke again. “Nico?” he said softly and before Nico could say a thing, he found himself surrounded by the smaller boy’s arms in a tight hug. “Thank you,” Percy whispered in his ear. 

Nico was so startled by the sudden situation that he only stayed still while Percy let him go, gave him one last smile before finally getting below the sheets.

“Good night,” was the last thing the son of Poseidon said before passing out.

Nico let himself fall into the bed without taking his eyes off the other boy. He could feel his heart beating really fast on his chest as a consequence of the unexpected closure and show of gratitude from Percy. “Good night,” he said a couple of minutes later, still processing what just had happened.

/break\

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Jane exclaimed excited while hugging the life out of Nico.

“Kit, let me go, please,” Nico grunted as he was trying to get out of the embrace. Not because he disliked the contact, but because he was embarrassed by the looks Alex and Percy were giving him.

Earlier that morning just before they left the Mall of America, Nico announced that they would take a quick detour before going back to the camp. That was a weird decision since they were only a jump away from their destiny, but Percy thought it was just a strategy, two short trips instead of one long. At least that what he thought until he found himself surrounded by the three powerful waterfalls that conformed Niagara Falls. Apparently, on the night that they had spent at Calgary, Jane had shown Nico a book full of photographs of Canada’s landscapes in which she had marked all the places she would love to visit, one of them being the place where they were at the moment.

“So you brought us here because it was one of the kitten’s dreams?” Alex smiled at him teasingly. She didn’t say it, but she probably thought ‘ _You are totally whipped’_.

“Maybe?” he said trying to sound indifferent, hoping that Alex would stop teasing if he showed that what he did wasn’t something special. It didn’t work at all.

“You’re going to be such a spoiling father,” she said shaking her head amused.

Nico decided to ignore her and focus on the little girl who was beaming at the moment. “This is a dream come true!” she said with a bright big smile. “I can die happy now.”

“Don’t even joke about that!” exclaimed the three teenagers sounding very alarmed. And honestly who could blame them? One was partially dead, other was the son of the god of the death – and had already lost his mother and sister – and the last one had seen the worst kind of dead with his own eyes – and had also seen many dear friends and companions die for him or right in front of him. 

Though Jane was only aware of Alex's living condition and that Nico was the son of Hades that seemed enough for her to smile apologetically to them. “Right… sorry,” she shrank a little without smiling, just to focus right away on the view in front of them.

“By the way… why did your mom call you kitty?” Percy asked in an attempt of changing the topic.

“Because she said that I was like a cat,” Jane answered without taking his attention away from the waterfalls.

“Cute?” said Alex tilting her head confused.

“No… she said that sometimes I’m really social, and some others, I’m kind of distant,” Jane said looking at them while hanging from the safeguard. “Also, because she said I tend to feel threatened really quickly.”

Percy snorted at that because so far the girl had shown that yes, she could get really defensive if she didn’t feel comfortable with her surroundings, either she had trusting issues or she had developed social anxiety as a consequence of her ADHD. None of them was good, especially for someone that young, but honestly who was him to judge her? After all, he had also struggled to get along with the people until he found Camp Half-Blood.

“Can we stay here a little bit longer,” Jane asked with begging eyes though she didn’t use the kitten eyes this time. “Pretty please?”

Percy shook his head, this girl might become more manipulative if he wasn’t careful. “Sorry, but I think it’s time for us to go to that place I told you about.” He squatted in front of her so they would be able to look at each other’s eyes.

“The camp?” Jane didn’t move an inch as she looked how Percy put some curls out of her face which was in vain since the day was very windy so they came back to their previous place in no time. Percy nodded shortly as an answer. “Fine,” she sighed disappointedly.

“Maybe Nico can bring you here another day?” Percy said turning to look at the rather distracted son of Hades who blinked at the mention of his name.

Now the begging eyes of the girl were on Nico and that was not fair. Not that he would deny her that kind wish. Also, during the quest he realized that he really needed to do more shadow-traveling, Will would be completely against it, but if he didn’t practice to control his power then he would continue to feel exhausted every time he did it which was completely unhelpful. “I would love to kit, but not in the next week… maybe next year?”

And just like that, he was out of air again as Jane collided full force against him in a hug. “You are the best,” said the very happy girl.

“Like I said, spoiling dad,” whispered Alex under her breath with a very pleasing smile.

“Oh, shut up,” groaned Nico while glaring at her.

Percy and Jane shared an amusing smile as the other two teenagers started another argument.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll be honest... I almost forgot that I had to post the new chapter today.  
> Next chapter they will FINALLY arrive to the camp.  
> Thanks again for the kudos, bookmarks and comments.  
> See you in May!


	5. As Bad As the Stolls

**Chapter Four As Bad As the Stolls**

“Wow! You’re a centaur!” those were the first words that came out of Jane when she was introduced to the camp activities director. 

Grover burst out laughing gaining him a confused look from everyone around. “Did you guys traveled into another dimension and brought back a female version of Nico? Because, I swear that was the first thing he said to Chiron,” he said with a broad smile.

That made Percy and Alex laugh while Nico glared at the satyr, shades of pink became visible on his face. “I bet I wasn’t the only one!” he exclaimed angrily and pretty much embarrassed. He wished his old self had not been that easily excited over everything and especially not that expressive. 

While fully enjoying Nico’s abashment, Percy got close enough to the giggling girl, so he could whisper To her, “Jane you should greet Chiron.”

Realizing that she was being impolite to the centaur who greeted her before she screamed excited, Jane stopped laughing and turned to him smiling apologetically. “Sorry. Hi, I’m Jane,” she said waving her hand a little. 

Chiron noticed how she hid behind Percy a little, however, he said nothing about it. “Hello Jane, as I said before my name is Chiron. I’m the activities director of Camp Half-Blood, the place we are at the moment. Now… by any chance do you know your last name?”

“Uhm…” Jane gave a quick glance to Percy and Nico who gave her a short nod of approval so she could continue. “Carlson,” she said unsure while tugging Percy’s hoodie.

The centaur gave another curious look at the way the little girl interacted with the other two demigods, but he decided to not comment about it at the moment. “Very well, I would suggest the four of you to go to the infirmary to have a quick revision, when you're done I would like to have a word with you Percy, privately.”

Percy froze when he heard privately, but he nodded as a confirmation. Whatever Chiron wanted to tell him couldn’t be so bad… hopefully.

The three teenagers and the girl followed Grover to the infirmary, on the way there Grover found himself being constantly attacked by questions from Jane who unlike from the younger Nico – who talked about Mythomagic the whole time – she wanted to know which parts of the myths were true and which weren’t. The satyr was very grateful when they finally arrived in their destiny so he escaped as soon as he could.

“Does he not like me?” asked the little girl as she watched where the other boy had runoff. 

“I don’t think so, it’s just unusual for a new demigod to be so excited when arriving here. Most of us were still terrified when we arrived at the camp because you know… the whole monster thing,” said Percy somehow uncomfortable with remembering the day he reached the camp after fighting with the Minotaur, it was not one of his favorite memories if he was being honest. So yeah, for someone like Jane who had gone through a lot of different emotions in so few days, she was rather chipper which was not bad, just weird. Or maybe she was hiding her real emotions behinds all that excitement? Percy wasn’t sure, but he hoped that with the time Jane would open up more.  
  


/break\

“Nico!” was all said boy could hear before being trapped by the strong arms of Jason into a hug. “So good to see you back and complete.”

Nico sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. Not that he felt bothered or uncomfortable by the overly exaggerated show of affection – he was already used to it after all those years – no, he just wished that the son of Jupiter wasn’t so overprotective. Sometimes he was worse than Will! Honestly, Nico was strong enough to take care of himself and he only almost died two times, not even as many as Percy or Jason had been. “Yeah, it’s nice to see you too Jay. Now, could you please let me go?”

“Right,” Jason smiled sheepishly before letting the younger boy go. “Sorry man, but how did the quest go? Did you find the girl? Is she alright?” he asked urgently.

“Yes and… yes, she’s…” Nico turned around expecting to introduce the girl to Jason just to find out that she wasn’t behind him anymore which was completely weird since she had been following him like a lost puppy since they left the infirmary. He looked around in utter panic for a couple of seconds before sighing relieved when he saw her hiding behind the nearest tree.

“Nick?” Jason was giving him a quizzical look, probably because he did a lot of different expressions in a short amount of time.

“Look what you did,” Nico accused while pointing in direction of where Jane was camouflaging. “You scared the crap out of her.” Jason frowned bewildered while looking where the son of Hades was pointing just to blink in awe when he saw the girl, who yelped and hid right away when she made eye contact with Jason. “Jane, come here, I swear he doesn’t bite.”

“But he gives bear hugs!” Jane protested from afar.

Nico frowned at that, she had been hugging the life out of him earlier and she occasionally hugged Percy. Was she really scared of the hugging monster that Jason was? But she also didn’t hug Alex at all during those days either. Were hugs something special to her? “If he promises to don’t hug you will you come closer so I can introduce both of you?” Nico asked cautiously.

There was a minute of silence before she answered with an unsure tone of voice. “Maybe?”

“Oh for… I promise to don’t touch you at all,” said Jason sounding between exasperated and maybe a little bit pouty. Another minute of silence followed up before Jane left the security of the tree to approach the two demigods.

Nico extended one of his arms so he could take her by the shoulders, she instinctively leaned into his body, one of her hands was tugging his jacket. He had noticed during the short trip how close she kept to Percy and him, she even half-hid behind the son of Poseidon before she exclaimed excited as soon as she saw Chiron. So he concluded that she probably felt safe while being close to one of them, even more, if both of them were present.

“Jason she is Jane. Jane, this is my friend Jason, I told you about him, remember?” he said with a knowingly smile.

Jane blinked dumbfounded, she gave the blond a glance before looking at Nico again. “The son of Jupiter that you compared to a loyal labrador?”

“That one,” Nico sighed ashamed. He better watch out whatever he told her because she repeated everything that came out of his lips. Just an hour ago she had called Will. Mother-hen because Nico tended to call the son of Apollo that when the other blond wasn’t around.

“A dog? Really?” complained Jason glaring hard at the Italian.

“Just look at how you at how you reacted right after seeing me,” Nico pointed out

Jason shook his head and rolled his eyes unamused, deciding to ignore the matter and trying to not feel offended. “So tell me, Jane, why don’t you like hugs?” he said in an attempt of changing the topic.

“I don’t like being touched by strangers or in general,” she said nonchalantly. “I can stand hugs, but only if I start them or if it’s someone a really trust.”

“Why?” Jason exchanged a confused look with Nico because that wasn’t usual for someone of her age.

“Why would I let a stranger touch me?” Jane replied defensively frowning at him. “Also I had this neighbor that was always hugging me like if I was a teddy bear… and… well… other stuff happened.”

That was the sign both of the boys needed to know that something had happened, and, by the way, she was acting, she wasn’t comfortable enough to talk about whatever that had happened for her to reject any kind of contact from someone else. Hopefully, she might start to trust them with the time and tell them what happened. Or Nico hopped so.

“Okay, why don’t we go and drop your things at your cabin?” Nico clapped trying to regain the focus of the girl on the topic of the camp which was easy with the short attention span she had. 

“Wait!” Jane snapped. “I’m not going to stay with you?”

Nico felt a lump in his throat when he saw the fearful eyes of Jane. Oh, gods… he wasn’t used to dealing with kids. “You can’t kit. The camp has… these cabin rules according to your heritage,” he explained hesitating.

“But I want to stay with you! Or Percy!” she threw herself against him, hugging his legs hard. To make things worse, she looked like she was about to cry.

“You can’t stay with me, sorry,” Nico was mildly panicked by her reaction. He looked at Jason for help, but the blond only shrugged unsure of what to do or say. Nico shook his head unpleased. “But you’re going to stay with some relatives of yours at Hermes cabin,” he said in an assuring voice, maybe knowing that she had relatives might calm her down for now which seemed to be the case.

“I have relatives here?” she said bewildered, almost in a whisper.

“For my father you do,” said Jason sighing exasperatedly. 

Nico tried not to laugh since he knew how many jokes the Stolls had pulled on him since his decision of staying with the Greeks. “Do you want to meet them?” he asked Jane, who was still hugging his legs. She slowly nodded, though she still seemed unsure. “Good, let’s go then.”

/break\

Percy felt like he just came out of the principal’s office. With his record, he should be already used to that feeling, but this time was different. It wasn’t about him getting into trouble, he knew what Chiron told him was true, it was actually pretty obvious that Jane felt safe when being next to him or Nico, but he didn’t felt ready for taking care of the girl. He was not even 21, yet. Still… he didn’t want her to live in the camp until she was old enough for living alone. If she was a normal girl maybe they could find her a foster family, but she wasn’t normal, she was a quarter Greek demigod and a Norse demigod which was twice as bad for her safety and the one of whoever was around her. There was also the problem of her father, a being that, according to Alex, as soon as he could he would try to hurt her or even control her for its own selfish motives. So trying to find her a foster family was out of consideration. Maybe someone in New Rome could take of her, but there was still some distrust between Greeks and Romans, would they even accept someone that belonged to another pantheon?

“What a view. You look like you are going to a funeral,” said a mocking voice in front of him.

Percy jumped a few feet when he felt a hand over his shoulder, his reaction, even if it showed how deep in thought he was, made laugh the only witness around. The son of Poseidon frowned and glared at Alex, his cheeks had an intense pink color, but that didn’t stop him from complaining. “Alex, don’t do that ever again,” he hissed.

“Sure thing,” Alex huffed while giving him an unapologetic smile, “I would love to make fun of you, but I got to go,” he said patting the other boy’s upper arm as he passed next to him.

“Are you leaving already?” Percy said sounding frightened. Was that it? He was going to leave just like that? A lot of thoughts passed through Percy’s mind because even letting the other boy talk.

Alex rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Oh yeah. I only wanted to drop the girl here and leave without saying goodbye,” he said with his voice full of sarcasm. “Of course not Seaweed Brain! Did you really think I was going to disappear like that? Geez. A bit of trust wouldn’t hurt, you know?”

“Sorry,” Percy felt ashamed but also relieved that at least he was going to stay a little longer.

“Seriously I need to know she is safe, so you will be seeing me around until the end of summer,” for Percy that sounded more like a threat than a claim. “So, how did it go?” Alex asked while giving a quick glance at the big house.

Percy sighed heavily, “I don’t want to talk about it. We have to consider a lot of things before taking the final decision. Are you sure you…?” he was stopped by the lifted hand of the other boy who was giving him a tired look.

“I already told, having the kitten in that place is a bad idea.”

“But what about that place that Magnus and Annabeth own? Wasn’t it some kind of shelter for homeless young people?”

Alex groaned even more annoyed than before, “What part of as normal as possible you didn’t understand? I know I can take her with me back to Boston and try to raise her with the help of other friends, but none of us know what an actual family is because we never had one. I know you had a loving mother who did what she had to do to keep you safe even if it meant sacrificing something to do so,” Alex’s eyes looked fierce but there was also a hint of disappointment. “I really thought you would understand,”

“Alex I…” 

“Save it, I know I’m asking too much, but…” he sighed turning into another direction. “See you around,” was the last he said before walking away.

  
/break\

“Are you aware that the Stolls are giving the kit a stupid class about the most relevant relationships of the camp?” was what woke up Percy from his pleasant nap at the shore of the lake. 

He looked at the grumpy son of Hades who decided to sit next to him, it took him some seconds before he was fully awake to answer, “No, I didn’t know,” he yawned while stretching, only then he caught on what Nico just told him. “But of course they are, damn it!” he groaned taking his hands to his face.

“We need to stop them,” he said scratching his head angrily. They couldn’t let the Stolls keep filling the young girl's head with that kind of information just for their entertainment.

“I have the impression that it might be too late,” Percy said without even looking at him. “But that explains why she kept giving wary looks to me and Annie, or to Jason and Piper… oh no. Did she asked about you and Will?” Percy gave him a horrified look realizing the sudden approach of the other boy to him.

“She did,” Nico said nonchalantly. “She was at the infirmary with us when she dropped the bomb.”

The son of Poseidon covered his head again with his arms wishing he could disappear, “I’m so sorry.”

Nico chuckled at the reaction from the older demigod, it was kind of cute. “Don’t be, Will answered to every single one of her questions and he looked like he was having fun,” he said trying to sound assuring.

“What about you?” Percy asked looking at him through the hole of his arms. Nico could notice a slight pink tint on his face.

“As you can see I pretty much run away from there. It was embarrassing,” there was a small smile forming on his lips as he looked at Percy.

“I’m really sorry Nico,” he sighed looking down still embarrassed of the whole situation.

“Stop apologizing, is not your fault,” groaned the son of Hades shaking his head unamused. “The blame is on the Stolls bad influence”

“Still… she kind of my responsibility,” argued the older boy slowly getting out of his arm shell. He might not have agreed to take care of Jane, but since he had been the one that had to rescue her, he apparently had become the person the girl trusted the most – Nico also had her trust, but he was barely 17 so he wasn’t old enough to be considered the protector or tutor of Jane while Percy was almost a legal adult. So even if Percy hadn’t decided if he would take her with him to New Rome, Chiron had trusted him the responsibility of being his protector until the end of the summer when a decision needed to be made.

“So, what’s the plan once summer is over?” Nico asked suddenly, making Percy slightly jump surprised. 

Percy looked at him astonished, were his thoughts that transparent? No… not even Annabeth could read him like that. It might have been a coincidence. “ I still don’t know,” he sighed. He noticed how Nico stared at him inquisitively, but he didn’t give it any importance. He wanted to ask someone what to do about his situation. He had been giving it a thought for a week, but he didn’t know what to do. He needed guidance, he needed… .“Could I ask you a favor?”

Nico blinked bewildered, that question came out of the blue. “Uh… sure?”

“I want to pay a visit to my mom, I want to ask her some… Uhm, stuff” Percy was sure that Nico will understand what he meant without even telling him. To be honest it was very obvious since they barely touched the topic a few minutes ago.

“Oh… sure, when do you want to go?” Nico didn’t ask why which was a good sign for the son of Poseidon. 

“Is it possible now? Like right now?” he asked unsure. Maybe it was very sudden for the other boy, but the sooner the better.

“Now is perfect,” he smiled before getting up, he offered his hand to the older demigod while he started to summon shadows around them. Percy took it without hesitating and he let himself be swallowed by darkness, he didn’t say it but he noticed that the feeling of shadow-traveling with Nico was different from the one he felt when he traveled on the back of Mrs. O’Leary. To begin with, he wasn’t used to being so close to the son of Hades, not even when they shadow-traveled for the first time. The closest they have been to each other was when Nico and Hazel got them out of the House of Hades and that wasn’t a happy memory because of how the other boy pushed him away when he tried to revive their friendship. 

“Did you guys move from the other apartment? Or my memory is so bad that I don’t even remember how this place looked like?” Nico frowned looking around utterly confused.

Percy couldn’t help but laugh at the face the other boy was doing. “We moved here a year or so after I finally reunited with my parent, so no, your memory is not that bad. I assure you,” he said smiling knowingly. It might have been a while since Percy moved to New Rome, but for him whenever his mom and stepdad were it was home.

“Percy? Is that you honey?”And of course, the first person to realize he was home was his mom who probably as soon as she heard the voice of her son, ran to reunite with him. In a matter of seconds, he found himself being surrounded by the slender arms of her mother in a strong hug. “I missed you,” she greeted him.

“I missed you too mom,” he said happily returning the hug. 

Nico could only appreciate the warming picture for a short time before he heard a high pitch voice he had never heard. “Pe-ecy!” 

From one of the rooms, a little girl of about 2 years old, came running in their direction with her appeared a slightly sleepy Paul. Nico guest he might have been taking a nap. “Attie!” Percy said happily, letting himself be tackled by the girl. 

“Miss Pecy,” big bright blue eyes looked at the son of Poseidon while she grabbed his face squishing his cheeks, the action made the older boy laughed.

“Oh, I missed you so much, little sis,” 

That did catch Nico’s attention, now that he looked attentively the girl he recognized the same salt-and-pepper hair that Paul had, he had seen her eyes, but with the gentle blue eyes of Sally which were looking at him intrigued. 

“Who that?” she asked tilting her head in an adorable way.

Percy gave a confused look between his sister and Nico before snapping his fingers. “Right, you never met him before. Attie, this is Nico. Nico, my little sister Attie.”

“Nice to meet you… Attie?” Nico waved shortly before giving Percy a bewildered expression because what kind of name was _Attie_?

“Short for Atalanta,” said the other boy shaking his head in disbelief. “Don’t judge, it was mom’s idea,” he exclaimed as soon as he noticed Nico’s confusion got worse.

“I named my son after the only hero that had a happy ending, so why wouldn’t name my daughter after the only great heroine of the Greek mythology?” Sally chuckled amused as she saw the interaction between the two boys. 

“But for her own sake, we called her Attie or Tali,” said Paul while lifting his daughter on his arms. “Like we call Percy instead of Perseus.”

“Exactly. Thanks, Paul,” Percy smiled gratefully at his stepdad.

“I always liked your name so I don’t see the big deal,” Nico frowned confused because, in all honesty, he had always liked Percy’s name. Even when he only felt hero-worship for the boy he always thought that the name fitted him perfectly.

Percy blinked mildly surprised and blushed a little at the statement Nico had just made. “Uh… thanks?”

Sally looked from one demigod to the other conspicuous, still, she didn’t comment about it. Instead, she was more curious about something. “So, what brings you boys here? And please tell me is not for asking Sally’s permission for another dive in that creepy river, one time was more than enough,” apparently Paul was as snoopy as her and even faster when it came to asking questions.

“Don’t worry mister Blofis, this time is something completely different,” replied Nico plainly.

“Yeah… actually, I wanted to ask mom’s advice about something,” Percy admitted awkwardly while playing with his thumbs.

“Oh,” Sally blinked a couple of times stunned, then she exchanged a sly smile with her husband. “Paul, why don’t you and Tali go to the pizzeria we love and bring some for dinner?”

“Yes! Pizza!” was the immediate response from the two-year-old girl who started to jump eagerly in her dad’s arms while pulling the neck from his shirt.

“Smooth Sally, very smooth,” Paul laugh amused. “But is a great idea.”

I took a couple of minutes more for Paul to get himself and Tali ready to go out especially when the little girl kept jumping excited instead of putting on her shoes. Nico decided to accompany them to the pizzeria because a)Paul would need help to carry the pizzas back since hi will be busy enough with his daughter and b)he was sure that Percy would want to be alone with his mother so it would be more comfortable for him to talk with his mom. So here they were, sitting on the corner of the blue modular sofa very close to each other though Percy had been awkwardly quiet for about five minutes.

“Is everything fine Percy?” Sally asked a bit distressed by the unusual behavior of her son. “The world is not in danger again, is it?” 

“No, no, the world is safe for now, no need to worry,” Percy startled and immediately tried to explain away the situation, he didn’t want his mom to worry about things that would never happen again. He had promised her. “It’s just… two weeks ago I had another retrieve quest.” 

Sally sighed relieved and smiled a little at the reaction of her son. “Another son of Hermes?”

“Sort of,” he said straightening his back and crossing his legs. The new position sent red flags to Sally’s head. Last time Percy had sat like that was when he told her that he was going to move to New Rome for university, so whatever he was about to tell her was serious. “Do you by any chance remember Alex?”

“Annabeth’s cousin… friend?” she blinked numbly. What do the green-haired have to do with this?

“Yes, well, he came to the camp asking for our help and… well… we basically had to rescue his half-sister who had just lost her mother a couple of days before we found her…” he continued telling the whole details of the quest to his mom who listened attentively and without interrupting him. Only when he had finished telling the story Sally spoke again. 

“Oh my… poor girl, she must have been terrified.”

Percy smiled at how his mother's kindness showed up even for a complete stranger. He really had the best mom in the world. “She is better now, but she’s still wary of everyone around her, she only trusts me and Nico so far,” he sighed.

“But not her sibling,” Sally noted the absence of the other boy on the list of people the young girl trusted, that was unusual. “And you say Alex wants you to take care of her?” Percy only nodded at her. “But you are too young to take care of such a young girl,” The alarmed tone of her voice made Percy breath relieved.

“That is exactly what I thought, but I don’t want her to stay the whole year at the camp, she barely started trusting the Hermes cabin and she is so impulsive that I fear the worse. I thought about finding her an adoptive family, but I don’t know. Raising a child is already hard enough, but it is even more difficult raising a demigod. Even if is she does not smell like a Greek or Roman demigod, she still doesn’t know how to control her powers, and under pressure, she suddenly shape-shifts into a kitten. I have the feeling that she will suffer even more if she is raised in the mortal world. She already got in trouble at camp and I… I… I don’t know what to do mom.”

Sally looked bewildered how her son blurted out all that information while being on the verge of tears until he finally collapsed on her lap. She smiled at him with tender eyes and began to stroke his hair in a calming way. “Oh honey, you already got attached to her, didn’t you?” she chuckled at his muffled sounds which she took as an affirmation to her question. She kept stroking his head while humming, her actions plus the tiredness that came after crying made Percy drowsy, after some minutes of silence she said something that made Percy to get out of her sleepy state abruptly. “Maybe you should take her with you to New Rome.”

He looked at her wide-eyed and out of words, “But… ”

“Let me finish” she cut him off before he started to get upset. “I still agree that you are too young to take care of a child, but I was younger than you when I became pregnant. The first years of having you might not have been easy, but look us now. Look at you, if I was able to raise such a fine man then so do you. And you are not alone, you have us and you have your friends. I’m sure everyone will help you with whatever you need,”

“So, you believe I should take her with me?” Percy asked unsure, looking at her with hopeful eyes.

“I believe that you should follow whatever your heart tells you, as long as you do that, everything will be fine,” Sally patted his knee in an encouraging way. “However, I would love to meet that girl, so how about you bring her for your birthday party?” she gave him a knowingly smile.

That made the son of Poseidon giggle while brushing away some tears from his face. “I promise I’ll bring her. Thank you, mom,” he smiled thankfully at her.

“Anytime honey, anytime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is... a little bit longer than usual, and I’m ashamed that there wasn’t enough Percy/Nico interactions in this chapter, but I’ll try to arrange that on the next chapters. Though I need to solves some plot issues first.  
> Also, look. I have no problem with Percy having a little sister, I actually like the idea. My problem is the timing of the pregnancy. Sally became pregnant around a month before or after her son reappeared. If you know the story of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens you might get an idea of why I don’t like this situation. Now... about the name, I thought it would be fair that both of them were named after mythological heroes and I’m not a big fan of naming kids after familiars. Also, Rick really messed up with his character name, the original name of Sally’s mom was Laura, but suddenly he decided to name her Estelle (?).  
> Anyway, thanks for the kudos!  
> Stay safe everyone!


	6. Responsibilities

**Chapter Five Responsibilities**

“Perce!” was all Percy heard before being tackled by a small being.

He grunted because of the impact but didn’t complain at all. At this point, it was a bad habit of Jane to run until she was either with him or Nico though she somehow had managed to knock down the other boy a couple of times in the past. That was still an unsolved mystery.

“Wow. What’s wrong? Did something happen?” he asked smiling at her.

“Hide me from her!” Jane exclaimed while hiding behind him and immediately jumping in his back like bear cubs did with trees when they felt threatened.

“Her?” he just hoped it wasn’t another case involving the Aphrodite cabin. Last time they have lured her with sweets before trying to dress her up since her vestments consisted of shorts and ‘borrowed’ clothes from him or Nico’s closet. Like right now, she was wearing one of Nico’s rock T-shirts and the day before she was using one of Percy’s vests. Of course, they looked ridiculously big on her, but she wore them proudly, and, according to Chiron and Will, they gave her a sensation of safety, even the Stolls said that she clung at the clothes in the nights. 

“Shrimp! Get your ass back to the arena or I’ll do it myself!” shouted outraged a voice that the boy recognized very well.

“Oh… her,” honestly, after a month of arriving at the camp one would think that Jane would be already used to the activities there, and well… she did enjoy doing most of the camp activities except for one in particular. Unlucky for Jane, the instructor of said activity was not other than Clarisse. The brunette had become the new swordsman trainer two years prior and she was really good at teaching the newcomers how to handle the different weapons and also helping them to find the best weapon for them. Outside the camp, she was studying to become a physical therapist because after all her years of fighting on the wars she had learned that for having strong warriors they needed them to be on their best conditions in both aspects, physical and psychological. Though she still had trouble while trying to have patience with the campers that weren’t very comfortable with all the physical effort that swordsmanship implied which was the case of Jane.

“Jackson, give the shrimp back!”

Percy groaned as he turned to see the source of the grumpy voice. Clarisse looked really pissed of, nothing new. “What in the world did she do that you are calling her shrimp?” he asked halfhearted knowing that complaints will come out of her mouth.

“She’s small with no muscles and she transformed into a shrimp during class before running away,” Clarisse pointed out every single one of her reasons for saying that.

“She did what!?” Okay, he did not expect the last part. His bemused features quickly hardened in anger. “Jane,” he turned to look at the girl who was using him as a climbing tree though said girl only looked away quickly seeming anything but guilty.

“To make things worse she can’t even hold a sword.”

“That is not my fault,” Jane finally spoke out but only to complain about that specific information. “Every single weapon you gave me felt like acid in my hands… except for the bow.”

“But you suck at archery,” the brunette shouted out so loud that many campers turned to look in their direction. 

“Clarisse, language,” Percy hissed at her while pointing with his head in Jane’s direction. In all honesty, he didn’t mind bad mouthing he was used to it, but the offspring of Loki had shown to be a huge copycat of every single bad habit the Stolls had taught her. He didn’t want to have problems in the near future if she also started to repeat all the swearing words she could. Yet.

“Oh please,” the girl scoffed nonchalantly. “I’m almost 11, and I heard worse things in Seattle.”

Clarisse snickered at her response and at Percy's unamused expression. “I would like you kid if you weren’t such a scaredy-cat.” 

Jane frowned angrily before pointing at the older girl accusatory. “I am not that! That Ares boy was trying to kill me,”

“With a wooden sword?” now it was Clarisse's turn to give her an unimpressed look, arching an eyebrow up. 

“And your point is? They also hurt when they are thrown at you very hard!” 

Seeing that the two females were about to start arguing, Percy lifted his hands up. “Wow, wow. Let’s stop right here. We’ll solve the weapon mystery later,” he said trying to finish the discussion before it was even started. “As for the sword practice… can she practice with one of the less-lethal boys?” 

Clarisse's eyes became wide for a second just before she glared at the boy. “Don’t spoil her! She won’t learn to defend herself if I am soft with her!”

Percy rolled his eyes while shaking his head in annoyance. Clarisse really needed to stop interrupting when someone else was talking. “Only until she learns how to use the sword properly. You know better than anyone how your siblings like to take it with the new campers, especially when they are a bit different.”

The brunette’s glare at him hardened like trying to pierce his soul which would have made him extremely uncomfortable if he wasn’t already used to it. “Fine,” she grunted shortly, then she glanced over Percy’s shoulder to focus on the girl that kept trying to hide behind him. “But not shape-shifting!” 

“Fine,” and with that final word the bickering over the sword, the practice was done. However, Jane did not go back to the arena after all that drama. Percy convinced Clarisse to leave it like that by the moment since there was something important he needed to discuss with the girl. 

Percy proposed her to take a walk around the lake so they could share all the things they did during the day. Of course, it was only an excuse but he really enjoyed listening to the girl babbling about the experiences and sensations she was having while spending time with her relatives. Though he kind of zoned out unintentionally right after they sat down on a big rock at the lakeshore. She could see Jane happily rambling over something –probably something she did with the Stolls or Alex– but he didn’t listen to a word she was saying. He was too busy thinking about how to drop the bomb to her. In fact, he didn’t know how to approach the topic at all. His brain kept giving him the worst scenarios that would totally not happen but that continued torturing him. What if she didn’t want to go to New Rome with him? What if she got so upset that she might runway from camp? What if she decided to go back to Seattle or Calgary on her own? What if-

“What will happen to me once summer is over?” Jane asked out of the blue without taking her eyes off the lake’s surface.

And just like that, the girl won him on how to approach the topic without making it awkward. “What do you mean?”

“I know this is a summer camp, everyone will either return to their homes or stay here the whole year. Also, Jason… mentioned that you will return to… New Rome?”

“Yes, New Rome is where I live now, but…”

“So…” she unintentionally interrupted Percy, but he didn’t mind that much since it was a bad habit she had when something was bothering her. “I’m guessing that I will stay here. I mean, I know mom made you promise to take care of me and that Alex has been extremely pushy about the matter,” she smiled slightly probably by remembering her sibling and Percy’s interactions in the past days. “But I want you to know that you don’t have to feel obligated of doing anything for me, you save me and that is enough for me.”

Even though she gave him a little smile, Percy could see how sadness shone on her eyes, and that broke his heart a little. He instinctively reached Jane’s hair and started to caress it. The girl slowly leaned toward his hand, until she was half laying on Percy’s shoulder. It looked like she wanted to cry.

“There’s no need to act all strong in front of me or even Nick, okay?” he tried to sound as reassuring as he could because he meant it, she didn’t have to hide her feelings toward him or the other boy or people in general

“But I don’t want to be a burden for you or Nick!” Jane protested pulling herself up enough to look at him in his eyes for the first time since they arrived at the lake.

Percy sighed aggravated, she was as hot-headed as many of his friends. He pressed her face in the middle of his hands so she wouldn’t look away when he looked at her on the eyes. “You are not a burden, okay? You are just a little girl that had very bad luck and lose everything she cared about in a matter of seconds.” Percy can see how tears start to form on her eyes, he gave a soft smile and rubbed her cheeks to wipe away the few tears that managed to escape. “Now, about where you are going to stay for the rest of the year, I…”

“Jane!”

The son of Poseidon groaned and mentally cursed before turning to glare at the boy that had dared to interrupt him, just when he had finally gathered his courage to stop beating around the bush. He made a mental note to kick the other boy later for cutting in their conversation and kick himself for not being more straightforward when he needed to. 

“Hey Neeks, what brings you here on this lovely evening,” he tried his hardest to not sound too snarky but by the face, Nico was making he failed with flying colors which only made smile sardonic.

“Very funny Percy,” Nico rolled his eyes unamused at him then he proceeded to look at the girl with a very serious face while pointing at her with an accusatory finger. “You, you promised Will that you would help him to arrange the infirmary library in exchange for archery classes, or did I heard wrong?”

Jane screeched and clenched her teeth at the accusation which seemed to be true by her reaction. “Oh no, did I promise today?”

Nico crossed his arms and looked at her vexed like he was saying ‘That was an unnecessary question’. “I guess? Otherwise, Will has been screaming your name for the last half an hour in vain.”

“Hey! No need to sass at me!” she grumbled while getting up. “Sorry Perce, talk to you later?”

Once Percy gave her a little nod in response she run in direction of the infirmary. The two boys looked at her until she was out of sight. Nevertheless, Nico couldn’t pinpoint why the other boy was shooting daggers at him and it was very uncomfortable. What did he do to make him angry? He hadn’t been rude to him. Maybe he interrupted something earlier? He honestly didn’t remember since all he wanted to do before getting there was to find the girl and drag her with him to where Will was.

His level of distressfulness was really low so it didn’t take long for him to snap. “What?” his croaked voice only made the son of Poseidon harden his glare. Now that was more awkward.

Percy closed his eyes hard and sighed clearly irritated. “You have the worst timing in the world.”

“Oh, did I interrupt something,” Nico mumbled for himself though not lowly enough since Percy was glowering at him again. “And by the look, you have been giving me I would say I did.”

“Yes, you did. Now you will help me to tell her that I will take her with me by the end of the summer,” he huffed in a way that it was crystal for Nico that there was no way for him to escape from that situation. The sea green-eyed boy will make sure of that. Not that he would try to escape he had promised to help him whenever it came to the girl. 

Yet, what really caught his attention was what hasn’t been said but it was explicit between the lines. “So you made up your mind. Did you already ask if she can go with you?”

Percy didn’t confirm nor deny the statement. He tilted his head while giving him a small and confidant smile. “I already asked Reyna if she could live with me back in New Rome. She said that she already consulted with the senate and that it was fine”

That smile always did things to Nico’s heart, not that he would ever admit. He coughed a little to regain his composure. “What about her siblings?”

“You heard Alex, even if they want to, they can’t take care of her without putting her in danger.”

“Wow. The double savior of Olympus raising a child, who would have thought so?” the snicker on Nico’s face only provoked another glare from Percy’s behalf.

“Make fun of me all you want, but I already decided,” he huffed shaking his head and turned to look at the lake.

“Hmmm, did that talk with your mom help you to feel ready for that kind of responsibility?” he asked out of pure curiosity. 

He remembered how light the atmosphere felt when they returned from buying the pizzas. He also noticed how both, mother and son, looked like they had cried for a while, yet they were genuinely smiling when he had arrived with Paul and Attie.

“No, I’m… would you please sit down? My neck is getting sore from looking at you every time I tell you something.”

Nico reluctantly sat next to the other boy after being swiped several times on his legs. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you,” smiled Percy very satisfied. “Like I was saying I’m pretty much terrified of what will happen or if it’s the right thing to do, but… my instincts tell me that it’s the right choice.” He clenched his fist on his shirt, an action that Nico interpreted as a way of reassuring himself.

“The two of you will be fine. I’m sure of it,” he smiled reassuringly at Percy. “Also, you won’t be alone, I’m pretty sure Rey will keep an eye on you, so will Frank who I can imagine will be blown away by the fact that the kit is also a shapeshifter, and knowing my sister, she will be more than happy to help you out with whatever you need. And —I guess — I could go and visit the two of you once in a while because I also promised the kit’s mother that I would take care of her, remember?”

Percy genuinely smiled probably for the first time in all the day. He had been so busy freaking out over the whole situation that he had forgotten that this time he did not have to bear with all the responsibility alone. He not only had his mom to help him he also a lot of friends that would gladly offer him assistance whenever he needed as they did in the past. 

He tilted his head and offered a wide smile to Nico. “Thank you, Nico, I really needed to hear that.”

Nico tried so hard not to blush but failed with flying colors, so he only nodded slowly before changing his attention to the lake —just to hide the small smile on his lips. They stayed in silence for a while just staring at the shimmering surface of the body of water while feeling the breeze over their skin. It was nice to share a moment like that for the time in years, something that Nico would have never thought possible not even in his wildest dreams. Though the moment was broken when the older boy spoke again.

“Speaking of my mom,” Percy said in a voice that deflected that he was scheming.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Nico frowned without taking his eyes off the lake. He knew that the second he saw those ocean eyes he would be unable to deny anything to them.

“Relax,” he laughed when he felt how the son of Hades began to get tense. “Apparently Attie likes you a lot and my 21st birthday is coming, so mom wanted me to invite you to my birthday party. It’ll be a small party, only family and closest friends,” he added knowing how much Nico hated big multitudes.

Nico blinked astounded, but would still not look directly at Percy. “That means the Seven plus Reyna, right?”

“Yup.” 

In all honesty, Nico wasn’t ready for another encounter with the Blofis, especially not after the last time when Paul and Attie had been asking him a lot of personal things on their way to the pizza place. Not even Will’s siblings have been so insistent on getting to know more about him when they were still dating. So that one time had been a bit overwhelming. Nevertheless…

“I guess it’ll be nice to see my sister and Rey, I haven’t seen them in months,” he said truthfully. Maybe we could bear a couple of questions if it meant that he could see his two favorite girls for a couple of hours — that and that he wouldn’t dare to let Percy down now that they were starting to get along again. “Fine, count me in. I might even bring you a present,” he smiled at the other demigod finally looking at him directly to the eyes.

“Yes, you are the best,” the other boy grinned and impulsively hugged the life out of Nico. Just to let him go as soon as he realized what he had done and offered him an apologetic smile.

Nico once again blushed but decided to change the topic quickly. “I am not, Will could tell you all the things I have done wrong in my life. It’s his purpose in life.”

Percy hummed in agreement. “I bet he would… how are the two of you by the way?”

“What do you mean?” Nico asked bewildered.

“I can see that the two of you are doing fine just like friends, so I wondered… how do you guys do it?”

Nico glowered at the question. He wasn’t comfortable whenever someone asked him about his past relationships. “It’s no big deal, I mean you and Annabeth are also good as friends-” he stopped talking once he saw the other boy’s grimace. “Or not?”

“I guess…” Percy said sounding completely unsure while he fiddled nervously with his necklace. “Honestly I have been avoiding being alone with her since we broke up.”

“Why?” Nico’s frown got deeper since that wasn’t Percy’s usual behavior. Something was off.

“Because it’s still awkward whenever it happens,” the son of Poseidon almost yelled “Because it’s still awkward whenever it happens,” the son of Poseidon almost yelled exasperated. “I really don’t know how does one interacts with a person you still love but not in the same way anymore. How does one stop feeling awkward around that person? I already ask Jay and Pipes for advice since they went through the same situation before me, but they just shrugged and told me ‘ _You just get used to not feeling awkward_ ’ which didn’t help me at all. That’s why I asked you how did you and Will managed to make to not feel weird every time the two are alone at the infirmary?”

For the first time in a very long time, Percy looked completely desperate and lost to Nico. Not even when he was deciding about the whole Jane situation he looked so mortified. 

“Uhm…” he hesitated about what to say before opening his mouth again. “It was awkward at the beginning, but since we only lasted a couple of months we didn’t make a big deal about it. And if I’m completely honest with you, Will only accepted to date me so I could get comfortable with my own sexuality.”

Percy blinked bemusedly. “So you guys… fake dated?”

“Wha- no! We did date, we did like each other.” Nico sounded slightly offended at the implication. “It’s just… everything happened so quickly… and for Will, it was more important that I became comfortable with who I am. So, yeah, we dated but only for like three or four months.”

“And you guys are okay with how the things ended?”

“Yes. Our feelings never developed farther from a crush and he nags me way too much for my liking.” Nico reassured him making a gesture with his hand. 

He really meant when he said that his feelings and Will’s never became stronger after dating for a few months. What he didn’t say was that in reality Will also accepted to date him in order to help Nico with his whole getting over Percy business. Though they realized that it had been a stupid idea and there was no way Nico would get over the son of Poseidon just by dating someone else, so they broke up in good terms and continued being good friends to this day.

“Maybe you just need more time to get used to being around Annabeth without feeling out of place, but I’m pretty sure that avoiding her is not the solution,” Nico pointed out trying to regain the focus on Percy’s current problem.

“Ugh, you sound just like Rachel,” Percy grumbled while hiding his on his knees.

“Speaking of Red, I haven’t seen her around.”

“And you won’t until the party. She volunteered at this summer art camp at NYU and it ends the same day as my birthday so don’t be surprised if she appears covered in paint or something like that.” Percy snorted at the mere thought of that because he was 100% sure that she would do that and he smiled, even more, when he noticed Nico smiling too.

  
/break\

“Do you think they like each other?” 

Jane asked so suddenly that the blond almost let a book fell on his head. Will lifted his head to see in the same direction as the younger girl. Even from where they were standing the figures of Nico and Percy sitting next to each other at the lakeshore were slightly visible but easily recognizable.

“Uh, what do you mean little girl?” Will asked. The moment the question got out of his lips he face-palmed at how stupid the question was.

“I mean… I noticed how close to each other they looked like and they kind of keep dancing around each other the whole time so I thought… maybe they like each other?” she frowned clearly confused at what she had said.

Will heavy sighed at her comment. “Even a little girl can see it.”

“Hey! I’m almost eleven,” she pouted. She really wished that people could stop treating her as a little girl. “So they do like each other?”

“I’m sure Nico does still like Percy, I don’t know about our Sea Boy but by the way, he’s been acting lately… maybe?” Will shook his head and shrugged because he honestly didn’t know and he knew very well that Nico would deny anything related to his feelings for the other demigod, so he prefaced to avoid getting into another argument with the son of Hades, it was a lot easier. “Why do you asked anyway? Did you hear anything from them?”

“Oh, no I didn’t,” she answered bluntly. “At least not form them, but Trav and Con mentioned that some people of the camp kind of bet that they would end together at some point.”

  
Will groaned and buried his face between his hands while muttering _Of course there is a bet_. His reaction made Jane giggled before she went back to the bookshelf they were arranging before she interrupted meanwhile Will kept muttering things about the Stolls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Glad to be back.  
> Sorry for disappearing for a while but I promise I won’t leave this fic unfinished. I plan to finish it. However, I think I'm going to start uploading whenever I can because some weeks I'm so busy irl stuff that I literally just write ONE line per week.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and see you soon.
> 
> Keep washing your hands and wearing a mask whenever you go out.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a one shot ... it became a head canon.  
> Warning: This is 100% self indulgent.


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